HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION FOR VULNERABLE ASYLUM APPLICANTS

V Preamble The interdisciplinary collection of scientific essays at hand aspires to thoroughly il- luminate the exigent and multidimensional contemporary problematic of the rights and actual conditions of the most vulnerable subjects seeking for asylum and hu- manitarian protection in the host countries of the European South, such as Greece and Portugal, in terms of a fertile two-fold epistemic andmethodological analysis. On a first level, the contributors systematically articulate the existing European and do- mestic legislative framework, the juridical processes and the dominant case law reg- ulating the asylum application for unaccompanied minors, the European family re- unification under the Dublin III, the prohibition of torture, as well as the protection of LGBT+ asylumapplicants and victims of human trafficking. Secondly within this inter- pretive frame, the practical complications and the pressing institutional, infrastruc- tural and financial inadequacies, induced by the application of the current legislative measures and judicial decisions, become critically evaluated. Finally they are radical- ly designated via the conduction of empirical qualitative social research focusing on the testimonies of legal and social professionals, caseworkers of asylum applications and NGOs employees. On thewhole, this collective epistemic effort seeks to contribute, in a comprehensive, fruitful and respectful manner, to the rigorous and demanding dialogue on the leg- islative, social, educational, psychological and political aspects of the European refu- gee crisis by concretizing the challenges faced by the most invisibilised and precari- ous subjects of the refugee crisis, namely the unaccompanied children, the refugee victims of sex trafficking and inhumane torture and the LGBT+ asylum seekers, and by providing scientifically coherent and empirically rooted propositions for the opti- mization of the crucial legal and structural processes that define the legal status, the integration prospects and thematerial and psycho-medical conditions of vulnerable asylum applicants. Rethymniotaki Eleni Associate Professor of Athens Law School President of the Greek Bioethics Commission