Refugee facilities on the Aegean islands
What is the current situation in the Closed Controlled Access Centres?
Refugee facilities on the Aegean islands
What is the current situation in the Closed Controlled Access Centres?
Introduction
This report aims to update our previous publication on refugee facilities on the Aegean islands, released in May 2023. We thought it was necessary to return to the matter in detail, for various reasons:
Arrivals of refugees on the islands are constantly rising
At the same time conditions deteriorate considerably
Serious issues arise regarding funding streams and financial management of the facilities
There are also serious problems related to understaffing and a gradual collapse of services
In addition, these facilities are at the heart of policies linked to the recently adopted reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS).
This report offers information on the asylum procedure, from initial registration until the delivery of a decision. We do not repeat fundamental, structural issues pertaining to each CCAC (e.g. location, funding, structural features, security measures and fencing) as these have been documented in detail in our previous report and are accessible to those interested. For the purposes of this text, we use the term CCAC or facility to refer to the Closed Controlled Access Centres of the five islands covered by the present research.
The EU introduced the hotspot approach in 2015 for the purpose of addressing refugee flows. This approach led to the launch of facilities on the islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros as Reception and Identification Centres (RIC). Since the end of 2021, these facilities have been successively transformed into Closed Controlled Access Centres (CCAC). CCAC are regional services of the Reception and Identification Service (RIS). The EU has entirely funded the construction of CCAC on Samos, Kos and Leros, as well as those on Lesvos and Chios where construction has run into serious obstacles. The EU maintains its monitoring role thereon. Whereas EU documents cite these centres as “Multi-Purpose Reception and Identification Centres”, the Greek government has officially adopted the term “Closed Controlled Access Centres” (CCAC).
For the purposes of this report, RSA conducted research from 20 September to 20 November 2024 through fact-finding missions and research on Kos, Leros and Samos, through the regular activity of its members on Lesvos and Chios, and through telephone interviews and online contacts.
We relied on statistical data published until mid-November and provided to us by the authorities, as well as on European Commission documents granted upon request. The information provided in this report was collected from cases undertaken and from our experience in the field, from contacts with organisations in the field, from asylum seekers residing in the facilities, staff working in the facilities, volunteers on the islands, as well as official communication with the responsible authorities and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We extend our gratitude to all stakeholders who provided data and engaged with us in the context of this research.
As regards the competent authorities, we received a response from the RIS, outlined for each island below. We did not receive a reply from the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons and Institutional Protection regarding the population of unaccompanied children in CCAC and the “safe areas”, despite our repeated efforts.
The data contained in the texts below refer to the situation at the time of our research, except where otherwise indicated. We note that such data are subject to fluctuation given the frequent changes observed in the facilities.
Population in the CCAC
Capacity
The Ministry of Migration and Asylum reports the capacity of CCAC as follows:
Serious discrepancies persist between the official “nominal” capacity and the “actual” capacity of the facilities, particularly in the case of Kos. The reduced number of actual accommodation places is mainly owed to the poor state and insufficient repair of infrastructure, rendering several areas unfit for housing.1
We also recall that on 28 September 2023 the Ministry expanded the nominal capacity of almost all facilities overnight without providing clarifications or evidence of changes to the facilities that would justify such a change. Since then, there have been further changes without justification.
Increased arrivals in the southern Aegean
The summer of 2024 saw a significant increase in arrivals through the southern Aegean compared to previous years. This has led to a higher number of people arriving at the CCAC of Leros, Kos but also Samos. Minister for Maritime Affairs, Christos Stylianidis, replied to a parliamentary question on 4 October 2024, stating that “from the beginning of the year to 15/09/24 Hellenic Coast Guard officers have arrested 1,131 illegally entering foreigners on the island of Rhodes, and 4,566 on the remaining Dodecanese islands in the same period”. Official figures of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum depict the evolution of entries in the CCAC throughout the year as follows:
These observations are corroborated by RIS statistics on registrations in screening procedures per island, out of a total of 28,110 registrations in the first nine months of the year:
Living conditions in the CCAC
The EU-funded facilities already suffer serious damage in infrastructure and living areas, while some parts are not used for their designed purpose – washing machine areas or restaurants in some CCAC, for instance.
Beyond other damage sustained, several containers have broken locks that have not been replaced due to a lack of funding. This creates security issues for people, particularly for women.
The European Commission has still not completed and published the required human rights impact assessment of the CCAC and to recommend measures to address reported problems, one and a half years after the recommendations of the European Ombudsman. This impact assessment seems to have been assigned to the Fundamental Rights Officer (FRO) of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, without any related publicly available information.2
Furthermore, systems rapidly collapse when the number of residents increases and many people end up in inhuman and degrading conditions, since the necessary measures to protect residents’ fundamental rights in such times have yet to be taken, as highlighted by the latest report of the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in the summer of 2024.
Living conditions are marred by very serious issues due to poor staffing of the island facilities and to gradual collapse of services, compounded by overpopulation and low seasonal temperatures (given the absence of necessary winterisation measures), as documented in the dedicated pages for each island.
You can find them here
A large number of RIS officials covering constant needs are not permanent staff but work under fixed-term contracts. In many cases of urgency, civil society organisations step in to cover basic necessities (clothes, blankets, heating, medicine, even food) and to cover serious gaps left by the state.
CCAC Kos, source: Private
Living conditions in the CCAC
The EU-funded facilities already suffer serious damage in infrastructure and living areas, while some parts are not used for their designed purpose – washing machine areas or restaurants in some CCAC, for instance.
Beyond other damage sustained, several containers have broken locks that have not been replaced due to a lack of funding. This creates security issues for people, particularly for women.
The European Commission has still not completed and published the required human rights impact assessment of the CCAC and to recommend measures to address reported problems, one and a half years after the recommendations of the European Ombudsman. This impact assessment seems to have been assigned to the Fundamental Rights Officer (FRO) of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, without any related publicly available information.3
Furthermore, systems rapidly collapse when the number of residents increases and many people end up in inhuman and degrading conditions, since the necessary measures to protect residents’ fundamental rights in such times have yet to be taken, as highlighted by the latest report of the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in the summer of 2024.
Living conditions are marred by very serious issues due to poor staffing of the island facilities and to gradual collapse of services, compounded by overpopulation and low seasonal temperatures (given the absence of necessary winterisation measures), as documented in the dedicated pages for each island.
You can find them here
A large number of RIS officials covering constant needs are not permanent staff but work under fixed-term contracts. In many cases of urgency, civil society organisations step in to cover basic necessities (clothes, blankets, heating, medicine, even food) and to cover serious gaps left by the state.
Kos CCAC, Source: Private
Controls and surveillance
Entry into the CCAC is subject to rigorous controls, as usually done at airports. Bags are checked and everyone enters through a metal detector gate. Checks are more thorough for refugees. Kos, Leros, and Samos are equipped with extensive surveillance and monitoring systems. E.g. on Samos, they have to take off their shoes and belts. They insert their card in a special port and place their finger on a special fingerprint validation machine. This procedure is also applied to facility staff, many of whom had protested its roll-out. Final entry happens via tourniquet. When exiting the CCAC, residents again insert their asylum seeker card and give their fingerprint. These controls are not implemented in the current facilities of Lesvos and Chios as they are not equipped with such systems. Residents may enter the CCAC until 9 pm.
Upon arrival at the CCAC or even earlier, asylum seekers have their mobile phones confiscated for an indefinite period of time, without a formal process and without further information or a right to object via an appeal or an independent authority review. As a result of this practice, people have no means to communicate with the outside world or with their family members or to seek legal assistance.
Every refugee we met on Samos has experienced an “informal confiscation” of their mobile phone by the Police, who have also demanded their password and only return them the phone days later. No document is delivered to attest the confiscation throughout the process. People are only given a number with which they request their phone from the Police. We stress that, even if this practice is applied on invoked security grounds or investigation of matters relating to human smuggling, the authorities should comply with the process set out in Greek and EU law (protection of fundamental rights, Articles 7 and 8 CFREU). For instance, they should ensure that people are informed beforehand of the processing of such data for a specific purpose, that the phone owner consents to such processing of personal data, that the actions are authorised by a prosecutor or a court, and that a confiscation report is drawn up.
SKAI Evening News Bulletin, Leros CCAC | 19/09/2024
Upon arrival at the CCAC or even earlier, asylum seekers have their mobile phones confiscated for an indefinite period of time, without a formal process and without further information or a right to object via an appeal or an independent authority review. As a result of this practice, people have no means to communicate with the outside world or with their family members or to seek legal assistance.
Every refugee we met on Samos has experienced an “informal confiscation” of their mobile phone by the Police, who have also demanded their password and only return them the phone days later. No document is delivered to attest the confiscation throughout the process. People are only given a number with which they request their phone from the Police. We stress that, even if this practice is applied on invoked security grounds or investigation of matters relating to human smuggling, the authorities should comply with the process set out in Greek and EU law (protection of fundamental rights, Articles 7 and 8 CFREU). For instance, they should ensure that people are informed beforehand of the processing of such data for a specific purpose, that the phone owner consents to such processing of personal data, that the actions are authorised by a prosecutor or a court, and that a confiscation report is drawn up.
SKAI Evening News Bulletin, Leros CCAC | 19/09/2024
On Leros and Kos, we received reports of “informal confiscations” of mobile phones by the Coast Guard or the police upon interception at sea, without any formal process. Phones were kept for several days before being returned to people by the Police.
Case study
Mohsen*, a refugee from Syria, arrived on Leros via sea at the end of July 2024. When he and the group of people travelling with him were arrested by the Coast Guard, they were transferred to a Coast Guard boat. There, coast guard officers confiscated their phones and placed them in a bag. Other valuable items were requested but were returned to their owners immediately. However, the passengers retrieved their mobile phones by the Police almost two weeks later, inside CCAC Leros.
At the same time, access to the facilities is systematically restricted for organisations active in the field, lawyers and journalists. The RIS has repeatedly and systematically denied such access, while in most cases local CCAC managers cite a lack of competence to decide on meeting requests from organisations.
In our case too, during our mission to Samos on 9-11 October 2024 we were informed by the CCAC Manager orally and by phone that our written request for a meeting with her had been rejected by the RIS. RSA lawyers seeking entry into the CCAC to meet with our clients were asked to show not only their professional ID and credentials of their interpreter, but also a written authorisation from clients – before we met with them to be able to obtain it! Only after they telephoned the Manager to explain the evident right of lawyers to enter for the very purpose of obtaining written authorisation were they allowed in. We note that we had previously informed the CCAC Management of our visit, of the names of our clients and of the need for a dedicated space to meet with them.
The CCAC continue to operate surveillance systems under the “Centaur” and “Hyperion” programmes funded by the EU Recovery and Resilience Fund, even though the Data Protection Authority has deemed them unlawful and has imposed a 175,000 € fine on the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. The “Centaur” programme is a comprehensive digital system of Online and Physical Security around and inside the island facilities through camera and algorithmic motion analysis. The “Hyperion” programme is a comprehensive biometric use entry-exit control system for the facilities. The same Ministry has also failed to publish the human rights and data protection impact assessment of the programmes, requested by the European Ombudsman almost one and a half years ago. The Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has also raised the issue of excessive security measures and barbed wire and their impact on children and vulnerable people, especially in their living areas.
Access to water
Water provision in the CCAC is a persisting, extensive issue, despite consistent pressure on the authorities from parliamentary scrutiny and from the European Commission in its dialogue with the Ministry of Migration and Asylum.4 Problems in water provisions have elicited costly, ineffective and temporary solutions.
Serious shortages of running water in CCAC have been notably highlighted on Leros and Samos. The former also faces serious sewage problems according to the European Commission.5 Sewage issues are also reported on other CCAC e.g. Kos, especially when overcrowded. Many of these issues are linked to permanent water shortages on most islands which deteriorate in the summer months (e.g. Leros). Similar issues face the facility under construction in Vastria, Lesvos.
As regards drinking water, the RIS reply we received states: “As regards drinking water, we stress that asylum seekers receive three (3) litres of bottled water per day through food provision.” However, people we met on Kos and Leros, as well as Lesvos, stated they only received one and a half litres a day.
Medical personnel
According to the response we obtained from the RIS, as of 11 November 2024, there is no doctor in any CCAC except for Lesvos.
Critical gaps in medical personnel in the Medical Control and Psychosocial Support Units in the CCAC therefore persist even after the completion of the PHILOS programme at the end of June 2024 – at that time there were only two doctors on Lesvos and two on Leros for first-line health care and psychosocial support. The HIPPOCRATES programme implemented by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) was launched in September, however, serious gaps remain in staffing of positions in the CCAC.
Staff would not suffice to cover the population in the facilities even if all advertised positions were filled. In any event, resort to succession of programmes to cover constant needs does not point to resolution of critical, systemic issues. For instance, the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) highlights that “each CCAC should have one full-time doctor and three nurses for every 500 persons” and urges for preparedness to increase staff upon potential increase in arrivals in its latest report on Greece.
The absence of doctors entails more than an inability of the state to deliver absolutely necessary medical care to the thousands of people living in the island facilities. It also poses a serious barrier to screening procedures which by law include a medical check and vulnerability assessment prior to the registration of an asylum application. The lack of medical staff is particularly critical for vulnerable cases with chronic and serious illnesses, such as diabetic patients. Furthermore, it renders connection with and referral to second- and third-line health care impossible, while all the islands hosting a CCAC suffer from seriously understaffed hospitals. Finally, people belonging to particular social groups (e.g. LGBTI+ persons) find no protection from violent behaviour from other residents and their reports to management meet no response. There is no functional infrastructure for access of people with disabilities and there are serious gaps in medication in most CCAC, even for people with chronic illnesses.
Financial allowance
In addition to housing, food and clothing, the law foresees a monthly financial allowance (cash assistance) to cover asylum seekers’ daily expenses. The financial allowance, funded by the EU under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) 2021-2027, ranges from 75 € a month for a single person to a maximum of 210 € for families of four or more members. It therefore offers a minimum and absolutely necessary contribution to people’s daily needs, not least given the serious gaps in the provision of basic conditions inside the facilities.
However, disbursement of the allowance had stopped altogether over the past months due to problems in funding management on the part of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. The last instalment paid concerned April 2024. This affected all island CCAC and was reported to us by residents during our mission to Samos. Our information indicates that as of October asylum seekers still living in the CCAC received retroactive payments for the months May and June. They have yet to receive the instalments for July onwards, however. In the meantime, those people who had left the islands never received the allowance to which they were entitled.
Failure to disburse the financial allowance carries very serious consequences for people living in the facilities, as they lack even this form of minimum support to afford basic necessities and necessary transport.
Transportation
The issues we documented last year in relation to transport of residents from the CCAC to cities persist. On Kos, two more bus schedules have been added, with a bus stop outside the facility. The cost of a one-way trip is 2.30 €. On Samos, transport to Vathy happens by bus at a one-way cost of 1.90 €. Bus schedules are not frequent, and buses are often full and cannot service all refugees waiting at the stop. All the refugees with whom we met complain about transportation difficulties and costs and are often forced to resort to taxis at a minimum 20 € cost. Throughout the entire journey from Vathy to the CCAC, a near seven-kilometre uphill trip, we encountered refugees walking from Vathy to the CCAC and vice versa. This is a permanent image on the islands, as residents of the facilities often lack the means to afford a bus ticket and end up walking to and from the city.
Kos CCAC, Source: Private
Unaccompanied children
The island CCAC have separate areas for accommodation of unaccompanied children, serving as “safe areas”. In the past months, these safe areas host more than double their capacity, with serious repercussions on children’s daily life, coverage of daily needs and hygiene conditions. These spaces include very young children (including an unaccompanied baby on Kos, for instance).
On Lesvos, arrivals of unaccompanied children and children separated from their families rose by 130%, with 73 arrivals in September compared to 30 in August and to lower numbers in the months before, leading to a sizeable increase in unaccompanied children.
On Chios too, the recently increased number of unaccompanied children resulted in children sleeping in quarantine and leisure areas, while some children sleep on mattresses on the floor.
On Leros, as reported to us during our visit, there are often no beds for unaccompanied minors to sleep in the safe area due to overcrowding. Lack of hygiene and clean linen, as well as skin conditions were also reported. We were told that five people usually live in one room and that more than 20 people lived in one room of unaccompanied girls in September.
The organisation ZEFXIS implements the Safe Areas programme for the CCAC of Samos, Leros, Chios and Kos as of 1 February 2024, under an agreement with the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. The programme ends on 31 January 2025 and no announcement has been made yet on its succession.
Organisations METAdrasi and PRAKSIS have undertaken the implementation of the guardianship programme for unaccompanied children, coming to a close at the end of the year. The General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons and Institutional Protection has orally confirmed an extension of the programme for 2025. The programme is affected by financial issues on the part of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, given that guardians have remained unpaid for several months. Furthermore, the number of professionals (individual guardians) deployed at the moment is 145 countrywide. This number is not sufficient to cover the needs of all children. We note that each individual guardian may undertake up to 15 children. At the same time, the process of appointment of guardians is marred by serious delays on the part of the responsible Prosecutors. This directly leads to delays in registration, the asylum process, as well as family reunification.
Significant delays have also been reported with regard to transfers of children to the mainland due to a lack of funding.
Kos CCAC, Photo: migration.gov.gr
Education
Enrolments in public schools have been relatively restored, while the number of children attending reception classes (DYEP) has increased. Delays persist in staffing, also affecting education inside the facilities e.g. kindergarten inside the CCAC of Kos and Samos. In many cases, however, children are not provided even with basic school materials: bags, notebooks and essential items. There are also reports of absence of information from CCAC to newly arrived parents on education possibilities for their children.
In addition, locals object to the enrolment of children in public schools in some cases. For instance, on Leros and in particular in Xirokampos, the village adjacent to the facility, residents demanded that children from the facility not enrol in the village school. Due to the protests, enrolment in the last school year was ultimately done at a school in Agia Marina, 6 kilometers away from the CCAC. On Samos too, there is insufficient space for high school reception classes due to a lack of classrooms. Finally, often abrupt transfers of families to the mainland result in enrolled children being unable to attend classes due to their transfer.
In most cases, the facilities do not offer sufficient activities for unaccompanied children. “We are waiting to go to school, there are no activities in here”, we heard from an unaccompanied child residing in the Leros safe area, where the playground resembles a prison and has no trees or grass. On Kos and Leros, there are no services of non-formal education, since the respective KEDU and LEDU Education Intervention Mobile Units ceased operations at the end of June. These remain limited on the remaining islands.
Critical gaps in interpretation services
Major gaps in interpretation services affecting both the Asylum Service and refugee facilities throughout the country over the past months have rendered the state unable to provide required services.
On 15 May 2024, the organisation METAdrasi suspended interpretation services it exclusively offered until then under an agreement with the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, due to the termination of the contract and several months of delays in payments. METAdrasi had also halted interpretation services to the Asylum Service since 29 April 2024 for the same reasons. Interpretation services are also financed by EU funds under AMIF 2021-2027.
The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) partly covered these serious gaps. In its reply to our request (on 9/12/2024), the EUAA noted that, “Further to the Ministry’s request on 22 May 2024, […] as of 3 June 2024, the EUAA extended its support in interpretation in the areas of asylum and reception” by deploying, in June 2024, a total of 257 interpreters in Greece, of whom 93 at Asylum Offices and 164 in RIS facilities, as well as some hours of remote, online interpretation (data by EUAA in its reply to RSA). This extension of support came despite the 2022-2024 EUAA Operational Plan particularly foreseeing that support to interpretation by the EUAA would be gradually phased out and handed over to the Greek authorities. The plan was commonly agreed between the EUAA and Greece, signed in 2022, and amended in April 2024, citing that “Interpretation support may only be provided on an ad-hoc basis and only in case of extraordinary needs”, as cited in EUAA’s reply. In the same reply, EUAA notes that “Based on follow-up requests of the Ministry the EUAA support with additional interpretation was extended until the middle of September. Further extension of this unplanned support was not possible due to limitations in the Agency’s resources.”
According to the figures were received from the RIS and the EUAA, the EUAA has deployed interpreters to the CCAC for the following languages in November 2024:
The aforementioned number of interpreters in the CCAC is extremely low, especially bearing in mind that each facility requires interpretation for several languages and for every service, from screening and registration of asylum applications to daily living and needs.
Screening and asylum procedures
Entry in the CCAC
Every person arriving or present in Greece without documentation must be brought by the Police of the Coast Guard to the nearest of the five island CCAC or the three mainland RIC for the purposes of identification. The authorities highlight that almost all people entering the CCAC apply for asylum in Greece and are thereby entitled to the rights of asylum seekers.
Due to the increase in southern Aegean arrivals since the summer of 2024, as described above, many of the arrivals on CCAC Leros and Kos include people initially arrived on other islands e.g. Rhodes and Tilos, where no RIS facilities exist and living conditions are clearly substandard. These people have often been forced to remain on these islands in homelessness on the streets given that the places lack reception facilities as well as temporary accommodation areas, until their transfer to an island CCAC
Moreover, people travelling by their own means to the islands for the purposes of registering an asylum claim encounter serious difficulties. They face either a denial of registration on grounds of lack of competence (e.g. Kos) or even detention, continued even after their claim has been registered (e.g. Lesvos). In the former case, people are called to travel to the mainland and appear before RIC Malakasa for the purpose of registration. Yet, this practice finds no basis in the law and causes unreasonable delays and denials of protection to refugees. Per a recent reply of the Minister of Migration and Asylum to a parliamentary question, “on the Island of Rhodes there is no Regional Service of the Reception and Identification Service of our Ministry (see articles 34-36 of p.d. 106/2020 Gov. Gazette 255/A/2020, as amended and in force) and newly arrived third-country nationals or stateless persons on the Greek territory through this specific Island are transferred by the aforementioned competent Authorities to the nearest RIC or CCAC.”
Case study
Samir*, a Palestinian refugee, voluntarily approached the Kos CCAC to register his asylum claim. However, he was referred to the police, where he was arrested, detained, and issued a return decision without his asylum intent being recorded. He was later released with a “Service Note of Release,” granting him a 25-day deadline to leave the country, along with the restriction of not residing illegally in Athens. After his release, Samir* returned to the Kos Reception and Identification Service (RIS) to register his claim, only to be told that it was not responsible for processing his request. He was informed that he needed to go to the Malakasa RIC in Attica for registration. Following the intervention of RSA lawyers, Samir* was eventually allowed into the Kos CCAC premises. However, the Kos RIS continued to insist that it was not responsible for his case and stated that the registration process could not be completed there. Instead, they said he would need to be referred to the Malakasa RIC for registration, which required an appointment through an online platform that was non-functional at the time. After further legal intervention, the Kos CCAC finally agreed to register Samir’s claim. Just one week after his registration, he was recognized as a refugee by the Asylum Service.
Kos CCAC, Source: Private
Screening
People are held in de facto detention inside the CCAC for a five-day period for screening purposes. This detention, termed “restriction on freedom” inside the facility in Greek law, is a blanket and thereby unlawful measure according to the European Commission.
It may be prolonged for another 20 days in the event of justifiable delays in the completion of screening. In practice, however, the “restriction on freedom” inside the CCAC is systematically prolonged under standardised decisions of the Managers even though delays in the procedure are attributed to the authorities and are neither motivated nor individually assessed. On Leros, the duration of screening even goes beyond 25 days. These timeframes directly exceed the limits set by Greek law and by the new EU Screening Regulation, which imposes an obligation to conduct screening at the border within seven days.
For as long as they are detained unregistered inside the CCAC, people only hold the “restriction on freedom” decisions that bear their photograph, their declared personal details, a unique six-digit code and their six-digit Asylum Case Number.
The RIS, however, refuses to ensure their access to legal assistance. The CCAC refuse to certify the signature of detained persons – a prerequisite to authorising a lawyer.
The CCAC cite internal instructions which are neither disclosed nor compatible with the law and with a legal opinion the RIS has received from the Legal Service of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum since the summer of 2024.
Related requests we have submitted to the CCAC to certify the signatures of detainees are not met with a written response, as a rule. Contrary to CCAC management, the Regional Asylum Offices of the Asylum Service hosted in the same premises certify the signatures of the people concerned, following instructions issued to them in the summer of 2024.
Case study
Hossam*, a Syrian refugee, arrived in CCAC Leros at the end of September 2024. On the day after his arrival, he received a “restriction on freedom” order for five days. His detention was prolonged with a new decision, which he did not receive. Despite repeated interventions from his lawyers, Hossam* was not registered until the very end of October, more than one month after his arrival in the CCAC. Throughout that time, CCAC Leros refused to certify the authorisation that had been sent by his lawyers. Hossam* was referred to RAO Leros of the Asylum Service which provided the service. The CCAC did not agree to even send a scanned copy of his authorisation to RSA lawyers, stating that it had no such obligation. In contrast to the delays of the screening process, Hossam* gave an asylum interview five days after his registration and was recognised as a refugee two days later.
The same issue relating to certification of signatures for the purposes of authorising a legal representative affects people (e.g. on Lesvos) who have received a second-instance negative decision on their asylum claim and no longer hold an asylum seeker’s card. These people are excluded from the right to be represented and often remain in legal limbo.
Another serious, chronic issue in screening concerns the lack of transparency in the way the authorities verify people’s details such as their country of origin.
In many cases, the Police and/or Frontex not only dispute a person’s declaration on their origin but “determine” a specific nationality to them. For example, stateless Bidoons with years of residence in Kuwait are erroneously identified as Iraqi nationals and Eritreans with lengthy residence in Ethiopia are incorrectly identified as Ethiopian nationals.
Such a “determination” is not permitted by the Screening Regulation and is recorded without any motivation in standardised “Screening Reports” filled by the CCAC. It can end up creating serious issues in the ensuing asylum procedure, given that the Asylum Service ends up disputing the applicants’ statements and dismissing their claims as non-credible.
Case study
A family of stateless Bidoons from Kuwait with two minor children arrived on Tilos in August 2024 and were transferred to Kos. Upon “screening” of their personal details, CCAC Kos challenged, without justification, their statement about their origin and noted Iraq as their estimated nationality, noting that this “came up in the identification procedure” without citing any further element. Afterwards, the Asylum Service rejected their asylum claim, not accepting that they are stateless Bidoon from Kuwait (despite the contrary relevant suggestion of the EUAA operator who conducted the interview) and ordered their deportation without specifying where they were required to return. The family’s case is pending at second instance before the Appeals Authority.
Asylum procedure
The overwhelming majority of people arriving on the islands are in need of international protection, given that they come from countries for which Greece approves asylum applications according to official figures e.g. Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Palestine and Yemen. For some of these countries, the Asylum Service grants refugee status without the need to conduct an interview with the applicant.
Legal assistance to asylum seekers is exclusively offered by civil society organisations, with the exception of the second instance where assistance is also provided by lawyers of an Asylum Registry managed by the state. Legal assistance is, however, limited prior to the registration of asylum applications, beyond formal information people receive from the authorities and from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In addition, lawyers of the Registry started an abstention from their duties due to delays in payments for over one year – despite disbursement of the relevant funding. Civil society organisation lawyers are not sufficient to cover legal needs and are constantly reduced due to funding limitations.
The authorities on the islands continue to arbitrarily implement the border procedure, normally reserved for unfounded cases. This procedure entails extremely short deadlines and reduced safeguards for applicants. Requests we submit to highlight breaches of the relevant rules and to request referral of people to the regular procedure are neither examined nor replied by the Asylum Service.
For their part, interviews of asylum seekers are systematically carried out by European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) personnel. This means that decisions are taken by Asylum Service caseworkers who have never seen or heard the people whose fate they are determining. Over the past months, asylum interviews are rescheduled or postponed due to the stark gaps in interpretation services.
Recognised refugees
Greek law remains unacceptably harsh towards people who are granted a protection status while remaining in CCAC and other facilities, as repeatedly highlighted by civil society, the European Commission6 and the Ombudsman. It provides for automatic termination of all their material reception conditions e.g. food and financial allowance and requires them to leave the CCAC within 30 days. This rule remains in force and is strictly enforced by CCAC, despite government commitments for immediate legislative changes.7
Difficulties are compounded when delays occur in the issuance of documents for refugees. By way of recent illustration, recognised refugees on Leros are required to leave the facility one month after being notified a positive decision even if they have not yet received their residence permit so as to be able to depart from the island. The issuance of residence permits may be completed much later than the one month deadline by which people must exit the facility, given that appointments at the Police may be set even one month later, on the one hand, while delays affect the collection process after fingerprints are taken, on the other. Requests from RSA clients for extension of their stay in CCAC Leros have not been replied in some cases, while in others the responses solely cite the 30-day deadline set by law for departure from the facility.
On 29 October, more than 100 people were evicted from the facility – refugees spoke to us of up to 250 people – after CCAC staff and security personnel suddenly entered their living areas early in the morning and forced them to leave. Some of them did not have time to even collect their personal belongings. Among the people evicted from the facility are several vulnerable cases, people with health conditions and large families with young children. Refugees evicted from CCAC Leros at times seek refuge in the old Psychiatric Ward of Leros and in other abandoned buildings, in parks and at the beach, in abhorring conditions and without access to running water or bathrooms. When visiting those spaces, we found clothes and other items indicating that people had recently spent the night there.
Former Leros Psychiatric Hospital – Photo: RSA
On 29 October, more than 100 people were evicted from the facility – refugees spoke to us of up to 250 people – after CCAC staff and security personnel suddenly entered their living areas early in the morning and forced them to leave. Some of them did not have time to even collect their personal belongings. Among the people evicted from the facility are several vulnerable cases, people with health conditions and large families with young children. Refugees evicted from CCAC Leros at times seek refuge in the old Psychiatric Ward of Leros and in other abandoned buildings, in parks and at the beach, in abhorring conditions and without access to running water or bathrooms. When visiting those spaces, we found clothes and other items indicating that people had recently spent the night there.
Former Leros Psychiatric Hospital
Photo: RSA
The same issue prevailed on Kos. Last winter, more than 200 people were homeless in the forests surrounding the CCAC. Volunteers refer to cases of families with infants, as well as a pregnant woman sleeping on the streets. Recognised refugees face homelessness and usually try to find solutions by living with many people in the island’s scarce apartments and by searching for provisional, informal work to cover their expenses. Others travel to different cities in Greece with the same aim. Some cases of particularly vulnerable people have even led to interim measures from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to secure dignified living conditions and to prevent homelessness.
As for CCAC Samos, refugees leave the facility after collecting a residence permit and travel document. Food provision also ceases when the asylum decision is notified. During our mission, we met a family of recognised refugees with a child. All held residence permits but the child awaited a travel document. They stopped receiving food upon collecting their residence permits and remained for 24 days without food or water.
Recognised refugees are being evicted from the CCACs without referral to housing or support programmes, leaving many at risk of homelessness. In several cases, they have also been denied the financial assistance they were entitled to due to funding cuts. At the end of November, the HELIOS programme implemented by IOM to support integration of recognised refugees came to an end. The programme had stopped accepting new enrolments since the end of August. No information is available for the time being on the launch of its successor, HELIOS+. A call for proposals for said programme was only published in early November.
Case study
Fadwa*, a three-months-pregnant Syrian refugee, was staying at the Leros CCAC with her husband and her minor sister, whose care had been entrusted to her by the Kos prosecutor’s office. The entire family was informed they had to leave the CCAC within a month of receiving their recognition decision. While returning from the town where he had gone to buy essentials, Fadwa’s husband was told to leave the centre, despite having submitted a written request to stay until the minor sister’s residence permit was issued. Only after an injunction application to the ECtHR did the authorities permit Fadwa* and her family to remain in the Leros CCAC until residence documents for all members were issued.
*Names of persons cited in this publication have been changed to protect safety and privacy.
Read also
The situation in the CCACs in detail by island:
Available also in greek / Διαθέσιμο και στα ελληνικά
Our previous publication about the situation in the Aegean islands (2023)
Refugee Support Aegean (RSA), December 2024
- European Commission, Email correspondence: ‘Summary of meeting with SG Iatridis 07/09/23’, Ares(2023)8358100, 8 September 2023.
- European Commission, 17th Steering Committee Meeting for Migration Management, Ares(2024)5159021, 17 April 2024.
- European Commission, 17th Steering Committee Meeting for Migration Management, Ares(2024)5159021, 17 April 2024.
- For instance, European Commission, Email correspondence: ‘meeting Secretary General Siarapi 29 April’, Ares(2024)5590307, 29 April 2024.
- Ibid
- European Commission, Letter to civil society organisations, Ares(2024)613054, 26 January 2024.
- Minister of Migration and Asylum, Letter to the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, 36502/2024, 1 February 2024: “we are in the process of extending the period from 30 to 60 days for food provision to all refugees after they receive a positive verdict on their asylum applications.”