-85. The European Union-Turkey Statement3 of 18 March 2016 was intended to ensure that all persons reaching Greece from Turkey after 20 March 2016 would be readmitted to Turkey immediately or once their asylum claims were deemed inadmissible or unfounded by the Greek authorities.4 In order to better manage the large influx of foreign nationals and to implement the EU-Turkey Statement, the Greek Parliament adopted Law 4375/2016, which entered into force on 3 April 2016 and introduced a considerable number of changes to the existing procedural and institutional framework for dealing with migratory flows in Greece. It also provided for the procedures applicable upon arrival in the so-called “Reception and Identification Centres” (hereafter: “RICs”; i.e. the “hotspots” or Κέντρα Υποδοχής και Ταυτοποίησης (K.Y.T.)) (see paragraph 12). 6. One of the primary purposes of the CPT’s April and July 2016 visits to Greece was to examine the situation of foreign nationals in the RICs on the Aegean islands. Another objective was to look into the particular situation of foreign national children deprived of their liberty in Greece. In July 2016, the CPT also visited a number of police stations and holding facilities for irregular migrants in Athens, Thessaloniki and on the Aegean islands to assess the treatment and conditions of detention of foreign nationals held under aliens’ legislation. Further, it examined the treatment of criminal suspects held in police custody and the safeguards afforded to them. 7. At the outset, the CPT wishes to emphasise that it acknowledges the significant challenges the Greek authorities are facing in dealing with large numbers of refugees, asylum seekers and irregular migrants entering the country. It has repeatedly stressed that addressing this phenomenon requires a coordinated European approach as well as support by the European Union and its member States and cannot rely on a policy of detention. The CPT is also aware that the extremely rapid application of the agreement between the European Union and Turkey did not allow sufficient time to build the necessary capacity and infrastructure for its proper implementation. It thus notes a direct link in practice between the time it takes for the European Union and its members States to provide the pledged assistance to process new arrivals and determine their legal status on the one hand, and the time foreign nationals have to remain in the “hotspots” in conditions which are, in many respects, unacceptable and which particularly affected those who were deprived of their liberty on the other. With this in mind, the CPT considers that the decision of the Greek authorities not to authorise the publication of the preliminary observations made by its delegation at the end of its April visit was a missed opportunity for mobilising this support. At the same time, it wishes to stress that this situation cannot absolve the Greek authorities from their international human rights obligations as regards the treatment of foreign nationals deprived of their liberty. The State must exercise its duty of care to all persons deprived of their liberty and treat them humanely and with dignity. 3 4 European Council, EU-Turkey Statement, 18 March 2016, at: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pressreleases/2016/03/18-eu-turkey-statement/. With a few exceptions, virtually all persons arriving on the Greek Aegean islands since 20 March 2016 have applied for asylum.