Supporting a minor through a changing asylum process

At the end of 2024, a legal guardian contacted ELIL’s Lesvos office on behalf of a young Syrian person, who was looking for legal support.  ELIL’s lawyer met with the applicant and his guardian together, to explain the asylum process, which had recently changed in view of the fall of the Assad regime - the usual 2 interviews used to assess eligibility for asylum had been combined into one for Syrian nationals. In the next weeks, the lawyer and the applicant met multiple times; initially, he struggled to grasp the new interview process and to remember important details of his case. Together, they decided on a coherent structure which he used in the interview to present his case. Due to the asylum service’s limited capacity, the interview was delayed; when the new date arrived, our lawyer accompanied the applicant to the interview and, after receiving a copy of his file, submitted a supporting memo.