16 In addition to the human rights violations intrinsic to the quarantine itself, this mandatory health protocol has taken on a distinctively discriminatory character, suggesting that it is part of a wider effort to enact restrictive and discriminatory policies against asylums seekers. While COVID-19-related border procedures have evolved alongside developments in testing and vaccination, the same cannot be said of Greece’s automatic placement of all asylum seekers into quarantine regardless of their vaccination- or infection-status. 28 Notably, when Greece announced that it was lifting all COVID-19 entry- 3. Quarantine on Chios On Chios, the quarantine for asylum seekers takes place in an old publishing office in an area known as Lefkonia. The quarantine policies and procedures have varied over time and the information gathered through investigations, interviews and surveys has shed light on these varying policies and procedures, although some details remain unknown on account of limited access to official information regarding the quarantine. The below section elaborates on these varied policies. measures on May 1, 2022, it failed to advertise RIS has stated that that quarantine began tak- that the same law would provide for the imme- ing place on the islands in March 2020. On diate and automatic quarantine of all asylum Chios, local news outlets first documented the seekers upon their arrival to Greece. In fact, this quarantine in Lefkonia in October 2020, 29 how- is not the only avenue in which Greece has used ever, lawyers formally learned about the quar- the pandemic as a pretext: Greek authorities’ antine in July 2021 when local news and Greek have issued 5000-Euro administrative fines Helsinki Monitor shared the identity of four against asylum seekers for breaking COVID-19- quarantined asylum seekers. In response to this entry measures and filed criminal charges news, on 4 July 2021, lawyers from Equal Rights against asylum seekers for “breach of disease visited Lefkonia. 30 Police would not allow the prevention measures.” Greece has also enforced lawyers to enter, nor would they agree to dis- this quarantine against a backdrop of illegal seminate Equal Rights’ business cards to the pushbacks and increasingly restrictive policies newly arrived asylum seekers. Lawyers also against asylum seekers arriving to Greece by sea, learned that the police had seized the cell suggesting that the quarantine is not primarily phones of those quarantined. On Chios, re- motivated by health concerns but is instead yet searchers and lawyers of Equal Rights have another tool in a much broader campaign of de- never been able to contact asylum seekers dur- terrence. ing their quarantine period. Police confiscate all asylum seekers' phones upon their entrance to quarantine, and lawyers are unable to access the quarantine even with proper personal The largest development in RIS’ quarantine policy has been the reduction of the automatic quarantine from 14 to 5 days, despite there being no automatic 5-day quarantine for any other population entering Greece over the same period, and even though many asylum seekers are already vaccinated upon arrival to Greece. 29 Astraparis, Στην Λευκωνιά η καραντίνα της ΒΙΑΛ – Σε ξενοδοχεία οι νεοεισερχόμενοι πρόσφυγες, 25 October 2020, available athttps://bit.ly/3YRgoEH (in Greek). Further, RIS has stated that the quarantine on the islands has been taking place since March 2020. 30 For the purposes of this report, the quarantine facility will be referred to as Lefkonia. 28 ‘Quarantine of Asylum Seeker’ – A legal classification of the quarantine practice on Chios