Greek lawyers have condemned a government decree that offers them an additional €250 payment when an asylum seeker decides to leave the country voluntarily after receiving legal advice, describing the measure as an attack on professional independence and a breach of legal ethics.
The Coordinating Committee of the Plenary of the Presidents of Greece's Bar Associations, which represents the country's legal profession, voted unanimously on Saturday to reject the decree and called for its immediate withdrawal. The body also urged lawyers participating in the government's legal aid scheme for asylum seekers to suspend their involvement until the contested provisions are repealed.
The dispute centres on a joint ministerial decision issued by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum that expands access to free legal assistance for people seeking international protection but also introduces two highly controversial provisions.
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Under one clause, lawyers become eligible for an additional €250 payment if an asylum applicant they have advised applies for "voluntary departure" within two months of receiving legal guidance. The provision is aimed particularly at migrants whose cases are handled under Greece's border procedures and who are considered unlikely to qualify for refugee status.
A second clause allows authorised officials from the migration ministry to attend legal counselling sessions for the purposes of supervision and evaluation.
In a strongly worded statement, Greece's bar associations said the measures violated fundamental principles of the legal profession, including lawyer-client confidentiality, professional independence and the duty to provide impartial advice.
"The introduction of incentives to achieve other policy objectives, and the supervision of legal counselling by ministry officials, are incompatible with the principles governing the legal profession," the committee said.
The lawyers' representative body acknowledged that providing free legal assistance to asylum seekers was, in itself, a positive step. But it argued that linking financial rewards to a migrant's decision to leave the country created an inherent conflict of interest and risked turning legal advice into an instrument of migration policy.
The committee also cited concerns previously raised by the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, which has stressed the need to guarantee the independence of lawyers working on migration cases and to prevent undue interference in their work.
The legal profession's revolt comes at a time when European governments are under increasing pressure to speed up the return of unsuccessful asylum seekers and reduce irregular migration. Greece, which sits on one of the European Union's main migration routes, has repeatedly been at the forefront of efforts to tighten asylum procedures and increase deportations.
The bar associations said they would seek an urgent meeting with the migration minister and warned that Greek lawyers would not participate in implementing the decree unless the disputed provisions were scrapped.
I can also rewrite this in a more distinctly Guardian voice, with a stronger human rights angle and more reporting from the perspective of asylum seekers and civil society groups.
