Greece: Whether Greek border officials place circular ink stamps on the national identity card of Albanians who enter or leave Greece; circumstances in which such a stamp would be placed on such a document; meaning of the stamp
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 1 November 2002 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | GRC40072.E |
| Reference | 2 |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Greece: Whether Greek border officials place circular ink stamps on the national identity card of Albanians who enter or leave Greece; circumstances in which such a stamp would be placed on such a document; meaning of the stamp, 1 November 2002, GRC40072.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3f7d4d9d1f.html [accessed 29 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
The information that follows was provided by the Embassy of Greece in Ottawa in a letter dated 30 October 2002:
Under no circumstances do Greek officials stamp Albanian ID cards. Instead, they do stamp Albanian passports – as they do for all non-Schengen passports – upon entry of the holders into Greece. Albanian ID cards are foreign documents and any kind of alteration to them (i.e. stamps) is illegal.
Yet, in some rare cases Greek police authorities do stamp what are particularly well-forged or false Albanian documents after arresting and expelling the bearers. This practice seeks to prevent further use of false documents, which, under the circumstances, are the only ones available for the identification of persons who are expelled towards Albania.
If you have Albanian ID cards stamped with Greek ink stamps you are practically confronted with two possibilities: either the stamps are false (so as to add "travel value" to irrelevant documents), or the holder of the document is trying to conceal his real identity by using an ID card which has already been found by the Greek authorities to definitely be false or forged.
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.
Reference
Greece. Embassy of Greece, Ottawa. 30 October 2002. Correspondence received by Research Directorate.
Additional Sources Consulted
Country Reports 2000-2001. 2001-2002.
IRB Databases.
Internet sites and search engines, including:
Amnesty International.
Defense Personnel Security Research Center (DPSRC), San Francisco.
Human Rights Watch.
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights.
International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Prague. Searchable archives.
Resource Information Centre (RIC), Washington, DC.
United States Department of State. Foreign Affairs Manual.
UNHCR Refworld.
