44 a capacity to accommodate 1,540 residents, Hidden from plain view of the main road, the including 960 persons in the general CCAC is built on top of a hill, and surrounding population, 100 unaccompanied minors, and its perimeter is a NATO-style double security 480 people belonging to vulnerable groups, fence with barbed wire. Private security guards such as single women and single parent operate throughout the facility, including at families. the entrance to the camp and the entrance to 123 The PRDC is also inside the facility, which will also have an additional capacity of the old RIC. These security guards monitor 600 persons once operating in full. asylum seekers’ movement not only in and out 124 However, this conflicts with the daily statistics that the of the camp but throughout the facility as well. Ministry of Migration posts that state a Armed police also work inside the CCAC. Not capacity of 2,356 for the Kos CCAC/RIC.125 only is asylum seekers’ movement controlled, Rights groups have criticized the Government’s plan to build closed facilities on the island since it was first announced in late 2019.126 In May 2021, the Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic wrote a letter to Greek officials that she was “concerned that this will lead to large-scale but lawyers and NGO workers who enter the CCAC are also subject to prior authorization and security checks when they enter the CCAC. For example, all visitors must put their bags through an X-ray machine and go through a metal detector. Once inside, visitors are accompanied by security guards at all times. and long-term deprivation of liberty... which The highly restrictive nature of the Kos CCAC is has very harmful effects on their mental in fact advertised by the government. The health, especially on children."127 The Greek Ministry of Migration & Asylum describes the government, distinguishes the CCACs from Kos and Leros CCACs in the following way: PRDCs, however initial observations from Kos “The two Closed Controlled Access Centers are suggest that certain practices in the CCAC do walled by an external, NATO-type security fence, amount to a deprivation of liberty. which in combination with the installation of the 1. Appearance: High Security Facilities required control systems, such as turnstiles, From the outside, the CCAC appears as a highly secured and militarized zone, giving off the magnetic gates, x-rays, two-factor access control system (identity and fingerprint) at the entrance, ensures safe and controlled entry and exit from the strong impression of a carceral environment. Hellenic Republic Ministry of Migration & Asylum, N. Mitarachi: Today in Leros and Kos, as a few days ago in Samos and in a few months in Chios and Lesvos, we inaugurate the new Closed Controlled Access Centers, with a view to the future. Images we can all recall from the period 2015-2019 belong definitely to the past, Press Office (27 November 2021), available at: https://bit.ly/3WYzFTS. 124 Hellenic Republic Ministry of Migration & Asylum, New Closed Controlled Access Center of Kos, Press Office (271 November 2021), available at: https://bit.ly/3IvpqCc. 123 See e.g., NCCBCIA, National Situational Picture Regarding the Islands at Eastern Aegean Sea (04 January 2023), available at: https://bit.ly/3R73yQb. 126 Reuters, Greece seeks bid to build closed holding centres for migrants on islands (28 May 2021), available at: https://reut.rs/3IkHaQU; Chantal Da Silva, Greece To Shut Down Overcrowded Refugee Camps and Replace Them With ‘Detention Centers,’ Newseek (20 November 2019), available at: https://bit.ly/3CnLYkL. 127 Reuters, Greece seeks bid to build closed holding centres for migrants on islands (28 May 2021), available at: https://reut.rs/3IkHaQU. 125 ‘Still detained and forgotten’ – Update on Detention Policies, Practices, and Conditions on Kos 2022/23