The CPT found that large numbers of persons with special needs and vulnerabilities were being held in both the Kos and Samos CCACs without being identified and allocated to appropriate accommodation areas. Young women or families and single mothers with small children were being accommodated with unrelated adult men and were being exposed to potentially serious harm in all three CCACs visited. This should not happen. No proper assessment of special needs and vulnerabilities or medical screening was being carried out upon arrival at the CCACs visited. The CPT reiterated the delegation’s request to establish such an assessment and screening for all new arrivals – on the day of their arrival – in order to identify persons in a vulnerable situation. Overall, access to healthcare and quality of care at both Kos and Samos CCACs was extremely poor, and it was insufficient at Lesvos CCAC. The healthcare teams are totally inadequate to address the needs of the centres’ population and immediate steps are required to significantly reinforce these teams. Further, contingency plans should be put in place to augment the medical staffing levels when arrival numbers surge. The Greek authorities should also review the staffing needs of the CCACs with a view to reinforcing the presence of qualified and trained personnel within the various accommodation sections of the centres and ensure a contingency staffing roster whenever the number of arrivals increase. During the 2023 visit, the CPT delegation again received many consistent and credible allegations of informal, often violent, forcible removals of foreign nationals across the Evros river or at sea to Türkiye. Such removals occurred without consideration of their individual circumstances, vulnerabilities, protection needs or risk of ill-treatment when returned (“pushbacks”). The allegations, as recently as mid-October to early November 2023, were obtained through detailed interviews with persons detained throughout Greece in various CCACs, PRDCs and other police and border guard establishments and related to alleged pushback operations that took place prior to their subsequent re-entry into Greek territory. Many allegations obtained in different locations from various unrelated individuals, including unaccompanied and separated children, corroborated the detailed descriptions and stories received elsewhere and concord with those documented by several other organisations, including UNHCR. Two patterns emerged relating to alleged pushbacks at the land border in the Evros region and to alleged pushbacks at sea, and they are described in the report. The Greek authorities have continued to maintain that violent forcible informal removals from Greece to Türkiye do not occur. For the CPT, there is sufficient information to conclude that pushbacks to Türkiye have taken place and continue to take place, albeit on a smaller scale at present. The focus must now be on ending violent, dangerous and illegal pushback operations once and for all. Further, effective investigations should be carried out into the allegations of pushback operations that have been filed with the relevant authorities, including the Naval Prosecutor. The CPT urges the Greek authorities to act to prevent any form of pushbacks taking place either across the Evros River border or at sea in the Eastern Aegean by law enforcement officials, military or coast guard personnel, as well as by foreign nationals employed to carry out such tasks. All foreign nationals arriving at the border or present in the territory of Greece who wish to request international protection should be effectively protected against the risk of refoulement, including possible chain refoulement. To this end, every foreign national intercepted or apprehended at the border should benefit from specific safeguards, including the opportunity to apply for asylum. 5