identification procedure and contains provisions on the conduct of screening both at the borders and on the territory of Member States.9 This report documents the legal and administrative issues pertaining to the new uniform registration procedure and to asylum seekers’ access to their rights following the launch of the new mainland RIC, through the lens of eleven recent cases of asylum seekers supported by Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) in the Attica region, covered by the RIC of Malakasa. It analyses obstacles to the making of asylum applications, the regime applicable in the RIC and the conduct of reception and identification procedures and lodging of asylum applications therein. Barriers to “making” asylum applications on the mainland Access to the asylum procedure comprises of three discrete stages according to legislation in force:10 1. “Making” of the asylum application, i.e. expression of the person’s intention to receive international protection status; 2. “Registration” of the application by the competent authorities within a set deadline. Greek law transposes the concept as “simple registration” or “partial registration”;11 3. “Lodging” of the application upon submission of a form by the applicant to the competent authorities. Greek law transposes the concept as “full registration”.12 The status of “applicant for international protection” and corollary rights to remain on Greek territory and to access reception conditions are acquired upon the “making” of the asylum application, in line with core principles of international, EU and national law.13 The “making” of a claim consists in the written or oral expression of the person’s intention to seek international protection and “entails no administrative formalities”,14 whether it is addressed to the competent authority or not. The Greek Ombudsman recalls that “the law lays down short deadlines for the registration of the application and for the grant of documents attesting its lodging, even where lodging cannot be fully conducted. The intention of the legislature is to ensure partial registration and the grant of a document with the details and a 9 10 11 12 13 14 Regulation] – mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament, 10585/22, 22 June 2022. See further RSA et al., The Workings of the Screening Regulation, January 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3WIppP8; RSA, Comments on the Commission proposal for a Regulation introducing screening at the external borders, October 2020, available at: https://bit.ly/3jSUBO7. Article 6 Asylum Procedures Directive. Article 69(2) Asylum Code. Article 69(1) Asylum Code. Articles 2(c) and 9(1) Asylum Procedures Directive; Articles 2(b) and 17(1) Reception Conditions Directive; Article 1(c), 59(1), 69(8) and 73(1) Asylum Code; Administrative Court of Athens, Decision AP971/2021, 24 May 2021, para 4; Administrative Court of Piraeus, Decision AP245/2021, 18 June 2021, para 4; Decision AP74/2021, 25 February 2021, para 4. CJEU, C-72/22 PPU MA, 30 June 2022, para 80; C-808/18 Commission v Hungary, 17 December 2020, para 97; C-36/20 VL v Ministerio Fiscal, 25 June 2020, paras 93-94. 3 RSA REPORT │ 2023