Despite the country, paradoxically and in contrast to our perceptions, undergoing a period during which the number of illegal arrivals and illegal residents is very low, both the EU-Turkey statement and its execution, the returns (deportations) and the significant increase of asylum claims create a qualitative difference. The greatest part however of the entire endeavour is related to the management of up to 15 thousand people living in the various open accommodation facilities, a significant part of which are in the midst of the relocation or family reunification procedure and persons located on the islands or the pre-removal centers under different statuses, who are not more than 11 thousand.25 The current situation and the issues of registration and statistical records One would expect that both the know-how gained over the previous years, and the domestic and international environment regarding the refugee issue, would serve to “impose” on the country the proper representation of the situation, and from there on, its better management since the numbers are actually quite low. Today the issue of registrations and statistical records pertains to: a) How many of the registered migrants are still in the country; b) How are they distributed per region and legal status (before - after the EU-Turkey statement, etc.); c) How many are being detained; d) How the asylum granting procedure is proceeding; e) How many are staying at the accommodation centers except for the islands and f) What methodology Greek authorities follow regarding the registrations, namely what they register, what they don’t register and what method they use to register. Finally, which of these details they disclose. The Greek Ombudsman considers that keeping the best possible, complete and high quality statistical records can only be to the benefit of both the machinery of state, and those staying in the country. Despite the fact that the improvement of the statistical data related to migration in recent years is satisfactory in certain cases, it concerns areas where the improvement had preceded the increase of the flows. To date, the statistics recorded continue to be defined by two factors: The first relates to the method used for collecting and “classifying” the data. It usually pertains to general calculations without any qualitative and quantita25 See the estimates of the UNHCR for the end of February 2017 (UNHCR’s contribution to the Greek Ombudsman’s Special Report, March 2017, p. 1). tive processing, something which in the end obscures the solution to the problems and obstructs the competent state authorities from defining their next steps. The second pertains to the withholding, the non-publication of data, which will allow control and evaluation of the results of the state’s intervention, and in this case as well, the design and implementation of the policies by the competent state agencies. We chose two examples, one from each factor, as they arise from a series of on-site inspections conducted by the Ombudsman. Α. A  n important issue pertained to the deviation of the numbers officially given by the Ministry of Migration Policy, for those staying at the mainland’s open facilities. At the end of 2016, based on the Greek Ombudsman’s onsite inspections from the second half of 2016 until the first quarter of 2017, we calculate that at least 25% of the individuals recorded to be living at the facilities, are living outside of them. We should note that not staying in the camps, only partially releases from their burden the persons in charge, since those staying outside still make partial use of certain services (e.g. asylum procedure, partially medical services, etc.). On the other hand, it is a clearly differentiated group of perhaps more than 12 thousand persons at the end of 2016. The Greek authorities insist on “registering” those staying usually based on the food “portions” and not the number spending the days or nights in the facilities, or at least not separating the two groups. B. T he statistical data on the number of children attending school, usually consist of general percentages. But even these, according to our inspections, do not reflect reality. A percentage of people which is difficult to calculate, despite their initial appearance, are not attending the special program.26 Moreover, the age records of the minors in each accommodation center are not accessible, which would give a full picture regarding how many attend the standard or special education program and make the statistical data available to any involved agency of the Administration (from central to local services), but also make their accuracy verifiable. 26 We do not refer to those that leave the country, but to those that stay in or outside of accommodation facilities or even recently in “apartments”. 19