cial integration and access to asylum award procedures, which suit a modern, European State. As with Europe as a whole, Greece went through different phases in addressing the issue of the mixed flows of third-country populations. The initial unwillingness to recognise the issue and to take even the most elementary measures to prepare for a more effective management, gave its place to a diffuse confusion when the time came to react; a complete, although unjustified, surprise, when the flows became more intense and dense during 2015. The lack of planning, of a coherent policy and a strategic plan, also ran through this phase, to such a degree that the weight of the management of the flows was put onto maintaining the so-called "Balkan Route" open, for the, more or less, safe crossing of the populations on the move. And lastly, the major event in the third distinct phase in the manifestation of the issue and in the management of the populations on the move is the EU-Turkey Statement of 18 March 2016. The flows are now controlled and the population of migrants and asylum seekers living in the country is measurable and limited. However, still today, more than a year after the Statement, there is still no integrated management plan, with a clear, stated and coherent narrative, with milestones and deliverables, targets and time frames of implementation that are complied with. Instead, the Greek administration is still operating in a state of emergency, which results in ad hoc arrangements and allows procedures, especially as regards the selection of contractors for services and goods, in derogation from the applicable institutional framework. The Greek Ombudsman, in line with his institutional role, has undertaken initiatives and has made repeated, targeted interventions, remarks and appeals to the competent authorities throughout the duration of the first phase of manifestation of the phenomenon, at a time prior to the surge of the flows observed in 2015. With recommendations and counsels regarding institutional regulations and preparatory actions, it intervened, in order for the country to be better prepared and capable from an administrative aspect to face the increase of the flows of the populations on the move, already apparent at the time. Very few, however, of the Independent Authority's recommendations, were effectively processed and assessed. The Authority served this institutional role also during the next phases, and it will continue to do so in the future, conscientiously, impartially and independently, providing to its individual recommendations and interventions a sound foundation of well-documented opinions and conclusions. With this report, the Authority is presenting its conclusions regarding the management of the population flows, with special emphasis on the period from the explosion in the number of the third-country populations on the move, up to approximately one year after the entry into force of the EU-Turkey Statement, aiming to highlight the degree and the level of the response of the administration's structures to the demands of the phenomenon, both in its most extreme expression, and in the present one, which is more predictable and certainly manageable. Special teams of the Authority’s staff, serving the mission of the Greek Ombudsman for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, with special emphasis on the rights of children and vulnerable groups, made a number of on-site inspections, cooperated with national and EU authorities and representatives of the civil society, collected, compared and evaluated official data, public statements and interventions of national and EU bodies, and analysed institutional initiatives and regulatory acts. The special competences of the Authority were also put into use; rights were exercised as the National Preventive Mechanism for monitoring the implementation of and compliance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of the General Assembly of the UN, as the equality body in the country that combats any form and expression of discrimination and as the external mechanism for monitoring the forced returns of third-country nationals. Thus, the Authority reached its documented general conclusions on the role of primarily the national and 9