Greece Links Migrant Departures To Legal Fees

Should a lawyer explaining your rights be paid more if you give them up? That is the question now sitting under Greece's latest asylum decree. The government has created a system that pays lawyers an extra €250 when an asylum seeker they have advised goes on to complete a voluntary departure. Greek bar associations say the design turns legal guidance into an incentive to leave (Government Gazette PDF, In.gr). No EU institution has yet assessed whether the arrangement fits with asylum law.

How the bonus works

The decree, Joint Ministerial Decision 120961/2026, removes NGOs from first-stage legal information for asylum seekers and replaces them with private lawyers. Those lawyers join a register run through the Athens Bar Association and are paid €160 plus VAT for each guidance session (ProtoThema English).

The disputed provision applies to applicants in border procedures, the fast-track system Greece uses at its external borders. Where officials decide that someone does not have a "strong refugee profile", the decree does not say who makes that call or on what criteria, the lawyer receives another €250 plus VAT if the person leaves Greece within two months (Ethnos). The payment is not triggered by saying you intend to leave. It is triggered only once departure is completed.

The government's argument is plain enough: qualified lawyers should do this work rather than NGOs, and voluntary return is a recognised route under EU law (Return Directive 2008/115/EC). Both statements are true. The difficulty is the payment structure. The Coordination Committee of Greece's bar associations has said lawyers will not take part unless the bonus provisions are scrapped. One report described the scheme as asking lawyers to join a "head-hunting" logic (In.gr). Their objection is not hard to follow: a lawyer who earns more when a client abandons a case has a financial interest pointing away from that client.

These sessions are not full legal representation. Greek reporting describes advice that may be delivered remotely, sometimes in groups of fifteen or more, covering procedural rights, obligations and return options (Newsbeast). For applicants from countries with asylum recognition rates below 20%, the information also includes criminal penalties for irregular entry or stay.

The EU can write rights into law. Greece decides how they feel at the desk.

EU asylum law gives applicants the right to information, to consult a legal adviser and to appeal a negative decision (Directive 2013/32/EU). The new Asylum Procedures Regulation, Regulation 2024/1348, is the central procedural plank of the EU's Migration and Asylum Pact. It expands border procedures while keeping those safeguards in place (Regulation (EU) 2024/1348). EU law does not ban states from telling applicants that return is an option. The problem is narrower and more practical: the lawyer is paid extra only after the applicant leaves.

That matters beyond Greece. The Pact entered its implementation phase in mid-2026, promising faster procedures balanced by individual protections (European Commission Home Affairs). Greece is one of the Union's key external-border states, and its choices will show how the new accelerated rules work once they leave Brussels and reach an interview room. On the evidence available, the bonus creates a serious tension with EU safeguards, though it has not been found to breach them.

The European Commission, the EU Asylum Agency, which monitors member states' asylum systems, and the courts have not yet ruled on it (EUAA Asylum Report 2026). A challenge could come through the Greek administrative courts in an individual case. The Commission could open infringement proceedings. EUAA monitoring could flag the conflict of interest in its next report. So far, none of that has happened.

Italy offers another version of the same danger. MEPs and NGOs have accused the Italy-Albania migrant processing centres of opacity and restricted lawyer access (Euronews Italy). Health and civil-society groups warn that screening is being compressed into police-controlled spaces under tight timelines (Questione Giustizia). Italy does not have an outcome-linked lawyer bonus. But the risk is similar: rights remain on paper while the procedure becomes harder to use.

What we still don't know

There is no implementation data yet. How many sessions are individual rather than group-based? How many applicants receive interpretation? How often is the €250 payment triggered? Without those numbers, it is impossible to know whether the bonus changes behaviour or barely registers.

The people most affected are also the least visible in this debate. The unresolved question is whether an asylum seeker sitting in one of these sessions understands that accepting "voluntary departure" may bring their protection claim to an end. The decree does not answer that.