This paper was prepared by a former IHR caseworker and PhD researcher at the Queen Mary University of London School of Law, supported by testimony and evidence from IHR on Samos. IHR is a non-profit law clinic that provides assistance to people undergoing all stages of the asylum procedure on Samos. The organisation undertakes advocacy and strategic litigation work, seeking to (i) end the detention of people on the move, (ii) end the illegal practice of pushbacks, and (iii) defend the right of people to seek asylum. In addition to the publication of the detention report in February, the organisation has published a report on the mental health impact of the CCAC (2), a report on the failure to identify survivors of human trafficking (3), and presented evidence before the Council of Ministers, European Court of Human Rights, European Commission, and the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights. Literature 1. Directorate-General for Communication. (24 March 2021). ‘Spring is the best time to prepare for Winter – why I am visiting Lesvos Now’. European Commission News Blog. See here. 2. Gayatri Spivak. (1999). A Critique of Postcolonial Reason. Princeton University Press. 2. 3. Glenda Garelli and Martina Tazzioli. (2017). “Choucha beyond the Camp: Challenging the Border of Migration Studies” in The Borders of Europe: Autonomy and Migration, Tactics of Bordering, ed Nicholas De Genova. Duke University Press, 168. 4. Ulrike Krause. (2021) ‘Colonial roots of the 1951 Refugee Convention and its effects on the global refugee regime’. Journal of International Relations and Development. 5. Helena Smith. (01 March 2016). ‘Greece’s refugee crisis: PM says country is overwhelmed’. The Guardian. See here. 6. Polly Pallister-Wilkins. (2022). Humanitarian Borders: Unequal Mobility and Saving Lives. Verso Books, page 69-83. 7. Gayatri Spivak. (1988). ‘Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing Historiography’ in Selected Subaltern Studies. Eds Ranajit Guha and Gayatri Spivak. Oxford University Press. 8. Lucy Mayblin. (2012). ‘Never look back: political thought and the abolition of slavery’. Cambridge Review of International Affairs. 9. Linsey McGoey. (2012). ‘The Logic of Strategic Ignorance’. British Journal of Sociology. 555. 10. Lydia Emmanouilidou, Apostolis Fotiadis, Ludek Stavinoha. (12 May 2023). ‘EU Details of Violations at Greece’s “Model” Refugee Camps’. Solomon. See here. 11. Dipesh Chakrabarty. (2000). Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton University Press. 12. Rita Lambert and Edurne Bartolome. (2022). ‘The Paradox of Refugee Hotspots: De/Rehumanisation within logics of permanent temporariness’. Blogs UCL. See here; Samos Advocacy Collective. (19 September 2021). ‘AYS Special from Samos: Nobody is Welcome – A New Hotspot to Keep Refugees Out of Sight, Out of Mind’. Are You Syrious. See here. 13. Ministry of Migration. ’Closed Controlled Access Centre of Samos’. See here. 14. I Have Rights. (20 August 2023). ‘”They are killing minds” – Life in the Samos Closed Controlled Access Centre’. I Have Rights. See here. 15. I Have Rights. (06 September 2023). ‘Unidentified, unrecognised and denied support: survivors of human trafficking in the Samos Closed Controlled Access Centre’. I Have Rights. See here. 20