40 many people reliant on social networks and Aegean islands raise numerous fundamental word-of-mouth information. Some rights concerns. In general, those issues are participants interviewed about quarantine outside the scope of this update and explored shared that they were not even aware that they in greater detail in Equal Rights’ report on the were in quarantine in the first place. quarantine practices on Chios (‘Quarantine Individuals are also not screened for Report’).105 However, for the purpose of this vulnerabilities before or during quarantine, update it is relevant to establish that the and there is no access to medical care during quarantine on Kos amounted to unlawful the quarantine period. detention. Asylum seekers quarantined on Kos The length of the quarantine period was often were confined for, at minimum, five days, inconsistent. In April 2022, the police without their consent at the behest of the state confirmed to Equal Rights that quarantine on Kos could last anywhere from 14 days to one month, while in May 2022 asylum seekers reported being held in quarantine anywhere from 10 to 23 days. As of 1 May 2022, quarantine was officially shortened to 5 days, following the issuance of JMD 23983 /2022.104 However, individuals interviewed after May 2022 reported being held in the quarantine facility for longer than five days, generally because there was no EODY doctor available on Kos to conduct the medical screening in the context of the reception and identification procedures. Generally, on the last day of quarantine, UNHCR met with asylum seekers after they had been tested for Covid-19 again, and during this time would provide them with information regarding the asylum procedure before they underwent their reception and identification procedures. The quarantine practices on Kos and the other 104 JMD Δ1α/ΓΠ.οικ.23983 /2022, Extraordinary measures to protect public health from the risk of further spread of the coronavirus COVID-19, 1 May 2022, Art. 1 para 6 refers to Annex II which states “(9): Especially newly arrived third-country nationals or stateless persons upon arrival at the centres and facilities hereunder shall be subject either to a self-test or to a rapid test for the detection of COVID-19 coronavirus antigen. If the in a facility that they could not leave and was guarded by the police. Moreover, until June 2022, lawyers were also prohibited from entering the quarantine facilities to meet with and advise applicants, even with appropriate protective gear. Further, as described in the Quarantine Report, there was no legal basis for quarantine, and quarantined asylum seekers were not registered for asylum by the authorities until after quarantine ended, which left them without legal status in Greece while they were in quarantine. 106 Equal Rights also reviewed more than 20 files from RIS, GAS, and the Kos Police Directorate of persons quarantined on Kos between November 2020 and January 2022 and did not find a single individualised detention decision or confinement order for quarantine. As analysed in detail in the Quarantine Report, these conditions amounted to unlawful detention because the authorities implemented it without issuing an individual order or result of the self-test/rapid test is negative, they shall be placed in quarantine for a period of five (5) days. […]”, available at: https://bit.ly/40p3cJ4. 105 Ivey Dyson et. al., ‘Extraordinary Measures: How Greece used the COVID-19 pandemic as a Pretext for the Unlawful Detention of Asylum Seekers on Chios (February 2023), available at: https://bit.ly/40ZvLx3 [hereinafter ‘Quarantine Report’]. 106 Quarantine Report, supra note 98, at 23-24. ‘Still detained and forgotten’ – Update on Detention Policies, Practices, and Conditions on Kos 2022/23