42 making it difficult to track and report on the guard. From there, people eventually undergo precise practices. Immediately following the reception and identification procedures and end of the automatic detention scheme— are later issued an asylum seeker’s card. Only around September 2021—Equal Rights once they receive the asylum seeker’s card can observed the following practice: after they exit the CCAC, an event that actors on Kos quarantine, new arrivals underwent reception report takes place in some cases before and and identification procedures, in many cases others after the 25-day restriction order completing these procedures in one day. At the expires. end of their registration procedures, RIS issued all newly registered asylum seekers an order that restricted their liberty for up to 25 days. Although in many cases they had already finished their reception and identification 2. Legal Assessment The practices on Kos surrounding the 25-day restriction of freedom order raise numerous legal issues relevant to this report. procedures at that point, the order was From the outset, the “restriction of liberty” enforced in its entirety during this period, indisputably amounts to a deprivation of meaning that people could not leave the RIC or liberty and therefore detention. This is clear CCAC for the full 25 days for any reason. from Art. 40 itself, which explains that “the Starting sometime in October 2022, the policy restriction of liberty shall entail a prohibition shifted and the Director of the CCAC began on leaving the Reception and Identification allowing people to exit once they had their Centre or the Closed Controlled Access Centre asylum seeker’s card, regardless of whether and on remaining on their premises.”115 they were still under the 25-day restriction With that in mind, the practice on Kos often order. However, the Director of the CCAC never formally revoked the decision but rather instituted the policy informally. amounts to unlawful and arbitrary detention. First, Art. 40 explains that asylum seekers should be subject to reception and In January 2023, Equal Rights observed that identification procedures “being under a the policy had once again shifted and new restriction of their freedom within the Centre” practices were in place. Under the current by a decision issued within five days of entry. practices, new arrivals undergo the FRONTEX If, at the end of that five-day period, reception registration on the same day or shortly after and identification procedures are still ongoing their arrival. Following their FRONTEX than the Director of the CCAC may issue an registration, the Director of the CCAC issues order extending the restriction of liberty for a people a 25-day restriction order before period not exceeding 25 days in total.116 conducting their reception and identification However, in its more than two years operating procedures. Asylum seekers are then moved to on Kos, Equal Rights has never come across an a specific section in the CCAC—at the time of initial five-day order, only a single order writing areas A1 and A2—from which they restricting applicants’ liberty for up to 25 days. cannot exit for any reason except for in case of Second, and most importantly, for the majority emergency and if accompanied by a security of the reporting period RIS issued the 25-day 115 Art. 40 L. 4939/2022. 116 Art. 40(a) L. 4939/2022. ‘Still detained and forgotten’ – Update on Detention Policies, Practices, and Conditions on Kos 2022/23