INTRODUCTION This report documents the experiences of asylum seekers in Greece following changes to the asylum system in September 2022. 14 months after the establishment of two Reception and Identification Centres (RICs) for screening and registration of asylum claims on the Greek mainland, Crete and Rhodes, access to asylum continues to be highly restricted. After years of mismanagement, structural deficiencies in the Greek asylum system remain, limiting access to international protection and placing people at risk of destitution and detention. Under the new procedure for applying for international protection in Greece, applicants who cannot prove their identity and nationality with a document issued by a Greek public authority must undergo reception and identification procedures at one of two RICs on the Greek mainland, located close to Athens (Malakasa) and Thessaloniki (Diavata). Entry to the mainland RICs is regulated via a platform on the website of the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum (MoMA) for applicants living independently, whilst in some cases people may be transferred directly to RICs by the authorities from camps or after being apprehended at sea. Once inside, applicants are unable to exit the facility for a maximum of 25 days while they undergo screening consisting of a police interview, medical check, vulnerability assessment, and the registration of an asylum claim for those who wish to apply for international protection. The introduction of mandatory screening on the mainland represents a significant shift in Greece’s asylum policy. While third country nationals arriving in the islands or at the Evros land border have been subject to reception and identification procedures upon entry for several years,¹ the policy changes introduced in 2021 and 2022 leading to the establishment of two new screening centres on the mainland have centralised the asylum procedure in Greece, whereby applicants submitting their first claim must undergo screening and a period of de facto detention in one of only two remotely located facilities, solely for the purpose of applying for international protection. Access to asylum on the Greek mainland has been an endemic problem for many years.² Chronic staff shortages, including lack of translators, and dysfunctional management have become the norm. As evidenced by research published by MIT, the previous system for applying for asylum through Skype proved inadequate due to limited availability of translation, barriers relating to applicants’ connectivity to the internet, and the burden placed on applicants to apply multiple times to obtain a full registration of their asylum claim, while faced with the risk of being apprehended and detained by the police.³ The termination of the Skype system left access temporarily suspended⁴ for the majority of third country nationals on mainland Greece, Crete and Rhodes between November 2021 and September 2022, leading to people continuing to be forced to remain undocumented for extensive periods of time and facing exploitation, ill health and debilitating fear of being illegally pushed back.⁵ 8