Relevant Migration and Asylum Minister Thanos Plevris on Friday said the center-right Greek government was determined to conduct a wide-spread review of asylum cases involving third country nationals, and if deemed appropriate, to proceed with revocations.
A revocation, in this case, would be followed by an order of deportation.
Plevris made the announcement in response to a tabled question by New Left party MP Dimitris Tzanakopoulos regarding a high-profile case involving Pakistani national Javed Aslam, who heads an organization representing Pakistanis in Greece.
Migration & Asylum Minister Thanos Plevris.
He clarified that the relevant asylum service and the appeals committees reviewing decisions by the former operate independently, emphasizing that he has no authority to intervene in individual decisions.
“Regarding the assessment of asylum status, whether in the first or second instance… no minister has any authority to intervene,” he said, adding that the only possibility for intervention concerns the appeal of a second-instance decision before administrative courts, if the relevant minister disagrees with the decision.
At the same time, Plevris stressed that he has provided a clear political direction for systematic case reviews, emphasizing that asylum is not a permanent status.
In providing figures for such revocations, the minister said that during the 2015–2019 period there were only 19 asylum revocations. By contrast, during the current government’s tenure, 595 revocations have been carried out, and it is estimated that by June 2026 they will exceed 1,000.
Plevris added that the directive concerns case reviews involving arrests or public order issues, as well as affecting individuals from countries classified as safe, to determine whether the conditions for granting asylum still apply.
Javed Aslam
Specifically on the Aslam case, he said the process is at the administrative stage, with the latter invited to file his objections to the decision within 15 days. “The asylum service, independently and on its own, will decide whether the objections are sufficient and whether the conditions for revocation apply,” he emphasized, adding that until the process is completed, as the relevant minister, he has no right to intervene.
On his part, Tzanakopoulos raised the issue of the institutional independence of the asylum service, requesting clarification on whether a review in this particular case was initiated by a political directive, and what new developments transpired between the most recent renewal of Aslam’s asylum status until the start of the revocation process.
