Communicated on 29 January 2020 Published on 17 February 2020

FOURTH SECTION

Application no. 52334/19 Kurdestan DARWESH and others against Greece and the Netherlands lodged on 4 October 2019

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns a Syrian family consisting of a husband, wife - who has a rare, genetic skin disorder - and two children under three years of age, who were granted international protection in Greece in March 2017. In late August 2017, shortly after the birth of the second child, they were no longer allowed to stay in the accommodation in Athens that had been assigned to them. Having remained without other assigned accommodation and any means to support themselves for almost two months, they left Greece and applied for asylum in the Netherlands. That application was declared inadmissible for the reason that the applicants had already been granted international protection in Greece.

The applicants, who emphasise that they are particularly vulnerable since their family comprises two young children and an adult in need of specialised medical treatment, complain that their return to Greece, where they will in practice not have access to housing, health care, employment and income support, will be in breach of Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention.

QUESTIONS TO THE GOVERNMENT OF GREECE

1a. Will the applicants - being beneficiaries of international protection - have access to health care in Greece and, in particular, will the first applicant be able to receive treatment for Bowen ’ s disease that she has been diagnosed with and will she be able to undergo regular checks for skin cancer?

1b. Is access to health care, including the health care for the first applicant as mentioned above, dependent on the applicants having social security numbers (AMKA)? If so, have (any of) the applicants been issued such numbers? If not, are such numbers currently being issued to beneficiaries of international protection? If they are, what are the conditions for the applicants being issued social security numbers? Do these conditions include having a place of residence?

2. Are the applicants, upon return to Greece, entitled to housing and what should they do to obtain accommodation? Is any such entitlement dependent on the applicants having social security and/or tax identification (AFM) numbers? If the latter, what are the conditions for the applicants being issued tax identification numbers?

3. Do the applicants have access to the labour market in Greece? If so, is such access dependent on the applicants having social security and/or tax identification numbers?

4. Upon return to Greece, would the applicants be eligible for assistance within the framework of either the ESTIA or the HELIOS 2-programmes? If so, what would that assistance entail? If not, is that because the applicants left Greece, and would they be eligible for any other kind of social assistance?

5. In the light of the applicants ’ claims and the documents which have been submitted, would the applicants run a real risk of being subjected to treatment in breach of Articles 2 and/or 3 of the Convention if returned to Greece?

6. If the applicants considered, upon a return to Greece, that their rights under Articles 2 and/or 3 of the Convention were being violated, would they have at their disposal an effective domestic remedy for those Convention complaints as required by Article 13 of the Convention ?

QUESTION TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE NETHERLANDS

In the light of the applicants ’ claims and the documents which have been submitted, would the applicants run a real risk of being subjected to treatment in breach of Articles 2 and/or 3 of the Convention if returned to Greece?