Court name: Administrative Court of Appeals of Athens
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The Greek Administration did not err in rejecting the applicant's asylum application as there were no legal grounds in considering that the applicant was a refugee. The applicant, who was a stateless person of Palestinian origin, claimed during his interview that he left his country for economic reasons and in order to find employment, confirming that there were no other reasons forcing him to leave.

Court name: Council of the State
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The Council of State approved the application for interim measures and suspended the deportation order against the applicant, who was born in Palestine and was stateless, according to certain documents on the public record (or a Libyan national based on others). The deportation order (issued due to suspicions that the applicant was a member of Hamas) was found to cause hardly repairable damage to the applicant, while the Hellenic Police had failed to concretely demonstrate why delaying the deportation would harm national security and the public order.  

Court name: First Instance Court of Athens (single-member)
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The case concerns a stateless adult who was born out of wedlock and who applied to be recognised as a legitimate child of his father. The court found that Greek law was applicable but dismissed the case as inadmissible.

Court name: Supreme Court (Areios Pagos)
State: Greece
Date of decision:

This case concerns an extradition request from Germany to Greece regarding a stateless person accused of several crimes in Germany. The Greek Supreme Court found that the extradition of a stateless person is not prohibited under the European Convention on Extradition and the national legislation.

Court name: Administrative Court of Appeals
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The case concerns the eligibility to receive pension as a widow, in a case where the marriage has lasted less than the three-year threshold foreseen in the legislation. The applicant claimed that she had been unable to marry her partner for a significant period of time, in view of the fact that she was stateless. The Court of appeals found that since the cause of the applicant's husband's death could be regarded as an accident, his wife could be eligible to receive his pension, irrespective of the fact that their marriage had lasted for only 9 months.

Court name: Council of the State
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The case concerns the rejection of an application for re-acquisition of Greek nationality by a woman who voluntarily renounced her nationality following the acquisition of foreign nationality by marriage, in spite of the fact that her husband was allegedly a stateless person of Palestinian origin. The court ruled that the competent authorities had acted legitimately by rejecting the application.

Court name: First Instance Court of Athens (multi-member)
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The case concerns the applicable legislation under Greek private international law for divorce proceedings regarding a couple of Iranian nationality residing in Greece as asylum seekers. The court found that asylum seekers and refugees cannot be treated as stateless and therefore the legislation of their country of origin is applicable in divorce proceedings. The court postponed the issuance of a final decision until the applicant submits information on Iranian law on divorce to the court.

Court name: Council of the State
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The case concerns the refusal by the competent authority to naturalise the applicant who was born in the former Yugoslavia, is of non-Greek descent with "undetermined" nationality and permanent resident of Greece as a recognised refugee. The court ruled that the competent authorities may reject the application for naturalisation without being obliged to provide a particular reasoning for that decision.

Court name: Council of the State
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The case concerns the refusal by the Greek authorities to grant benefits and pension to mothers with at least four children, as prescribed by law, in case any of the children is not a Greek national. In this case, the family had lost Greek nationality. While most family members re-acquired it later, one of the daughters had remained stateless.

Court name: Council of the State
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The case concerns the acquisition of Greek nationality by the son of a mother who had lost Greek nationality prior to his birth. The court ruled that individuals whose mother had lost Greek nationality on grounds other than marriage were not eligible to acquire Greek nationality.

Court name: Administrative Court of Appeals
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The case concerns civil liability of the Greek State in view of the revocation of a naturalisation decision. The applicant, who was born in Greece to a Greek mother and a stateless father, applied for naturalisation, not having acquired Greek nationality before. The authorities accepted his application but later revoked their decision since the applicant had not taken the oath within the required deadline. The applicant later re-applied and was naturalised Greek. He brought a claim against the Greek State requesting monetary compensation for the moral damages sustained due to the revocation of his nationality. The court held that the naturalisation decision could not be revoked in case the person concerned had taken the oath, even after the expiration of the deadline. However, no compensation should be awarded since no causal link could be established between the actions of the competent authorities and the damages claimed to have been sustained by the applicant.

Court name: First Instance Court of Athens (multi-member)
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The court held that Greek law shall be applied in the case of the adoption of a stateless person of Palestinian origin who is permanently residing in Greece, according to Greek private international law.

Court name: Court of first instance of Thessaloniki
State: Greece
Date of decision:

This case concerns the application for the issuance of a "certificate of inheritance'' to prove the status of heir of a stateless person. The court found that, while the issuance of such a certificate is not possible for a stateless person since, in view of her status, she is not registered in the municipal rolls, the applicants should still provide sufficient evidence to substantiate their claim that their are the heirs of the deceased.

Court name: Administrative Court of Appeals
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The court rejected the asylum application of an applicant claiming inter alia that his statelessness had had an impact on his life. The court ruled that his claims were vague and inconsistent.

Court name: Council of the State
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The court held that voluntary renunciation of Greek nationality is not solely dependent on the will of the person concerned but is also subject to the prior approval by the State, in order to, inter alia, avoid statelessness.

Court name: Council of the State
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The case concerns an application for restoration of his Greek nationality. The court found that the applicant was aware of the fact that he had lost Greek nationality for several years, since he had applied to acquire Turkish nationality as a stateless person. The application was thus deemed inadmissible.

Court name: Council of the State
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The case concerns the rejection of the application for international protection from an applicant who is from Bangladesh and claims to be stateless. The Council of the State held that, given that the applicant had initially been registered as a national of Bangladesh and only mentioned that he was stateless for the first time before the court, the decision to reject his asylum application was sufficiently reasoned in that part. However, the part of the decision ordering the applicant to depart Greece voluntarily within three months had not taken into consideration the fact that he suffered from serious health issues, and thus could be considered eligible for the issuance of a residence permit for humanitarian reasons.

Court name: Supreme Court
State: Greece
Date of decision:

France requested from the Greek authorities the extradition of a stateless person who faced multiple criminal charges.

Court name: Council of State
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The case concerned the decision of the Greek police to deport the applicant on the grounds of national and public security and on the basis of confidential police documents.

Court name: Council of State
State: Greece
Date of decision:

The case concerned the refusal to grant international protection to the applicant who had produced evidence that he was going to lose his nationality due to pending criminal proceedings against him in his country of nationality.