34 However, during that period there were fewer interview acceleration, interview preparation, than 50 people detained in the PRDC, and transfer and lift of geographical restrictions for Equal Rights observed that the attention and medical reasons, complaints regarding the capacity of many lawyers was diverted to assist living new arrivals with their cases, many of which interventions for violations of rights during were urgent. reception procedures and access to health, and 59 Additionally, the other legal conditions the CCAC, legal actors operate within the CCAC, and the assistance increase of asylum seekers in the CCAC meant obtaining legal custody of their children. As the resources were diverted away from the PRDC. extremely limited number of lawyers and NGOs As a result, individuals in the Kos PRDC, many attempted to cover gaps in legal services of whom were already rejected from the asylum available to new arrivals, individuals in the procedure, had an even more difficult time PRDC were thus left with even more limited accessing legal assistance. As such, the limited access to legal services. number of lawyers and large number of asylum for in single-parent families in times for detained persons trying to access C. Lack of Proper Detention Orders and Reasons for Detention lawyers. Jamal shared that for him, “It was Consistent with the first and second editions of difficult to get legal assistance. I was contacting this report, Equal Rights found during this lawyers for a month.” reporting period that the authorities continued The limited number of legal aid providers also to issue template decisions, that lacked any made it increasingly challenging to respond to individualized reasoning and were often rife the evolving and diverse needs of asylum with procedural errors. seekers on Kos, which further diverted For this edition of the report, Equal Rights attention and capacity away from individuals analysed the detention orders for 20 clients detained in the Kos PRDC. Novel legal cases who were detained either as asylum seekers or often require extra time and diligence as with a view to their return.60 Equal Rights first lawyers familiarize themselves with new legal looked at 10 detention orders for clients procedures, further overburdening them. detained as asylum seekers pursuant to Art. 50 Throughout the reporting period, Equal Rights L. 4939/2022.61 None of the orders contained an observed that the rise in asylum seekers led to individualized assessment. Further, two cited an increased number of requests for legal the wrong law, in one case citing the outdated assistance with the following procedures: L. 4636/2019;62 four of them wrongly invoked correcting mistakes the authorities recorded in the public order grounds for detention, and their assistance another two were based on a contradictory obtaining their travel documents, family opinion from the head of the RAO — stating on reunification the one hand that the applicants’ identity had seekers arriving to Kos caused long waiting personal information, from countries of origin, Hellenic Ministry of Migration and Asylum, Statistics, available at: https://migration.gov.gr/en/statistika/. In some cases, clients were detained under both legal frameworks. In those cases, however, we analysed their detention orders separately. 61 Art. 50. L. 4939/2022. 62 Art. 46 L. 4636/2019. 59 60 ‘Still detained and forgotten’ – Update on Detention Policies, Practices, and Conditions on Kos 2023/24