the Ombudsman’s experience from the handling of relevant reports, these are applications that were initially submitted as far back as 10 years ago. Moreover, on that same date, the examination at the 2nd degree of another 3000 asylum applications by the Committees of the Appeals Authority was still pending, since they had ceased their operations for a long period of time. The problem of access to the asylum service in Athens The Greek Ombudsman has repeatedly noted as a particularly positive development from the aspect of procedure quality and compliance with the guarantees of the law, the establishment of a non-police service, namely the new Asylum Service which began operations in June 2013,92 acknowledging the effort put into its correct and effective operation. However, after two years of its operation, in 2015 the right of anyone wishing to be granted any form of international protection to submit an asylum application should be ensured in practice at all times and in a seamless manner. This did not occur even in Attica, taking into consideration the large number of persons who attempted to approach the service to submit asylum applications in person, as required by law, but vainly, considering that the Regional Asylum Office of Attica accepted less than 20 people a day, which meant that the rest of them had to re-appear on a daily basis. Because refugees from Syria - and other places – came to Greece even before 2015. In December 2014, the Syrians dynamically requested to be heard by organising a sitting protest in Syntagma Square, leading to the positive result of launching a special accelerated process for them. However, individual applicants continue to be unable to access the Regional Asylum Office of Attica. The Ombudsman notes that there should be no margin left for the impression that one, even if Syrian, must organise a sitting demonstration in Syntagma Square in order to be able to access the asylum service (case No. 193754/2014). The queues by people interested in submitting asylum applications, including a significant number of Syrians or other vulnerable cases, were a frequent phenomenon outside of the new asylum service up to the first half of 2015, bringing to mind similar images from the past at the Aliens Police Division of Attica.93 92 On 7.6.2013, as a civic service under the Minister of Public Order and from January 2015, the Deputy Minister and current Minister of Migration Policy. 93 Annual Report 2015, pg. 27. How things stand in 2015 The Greek Ombudsman had highlighted the strongly increasing numbers of migrants and refugees arriving already in 2014, and had asked that the operational shortcomings of the first reception services were addressed promptly, and that they should include Asylum Offices with adequate staffing.94 The massive inflow of migrants and refugees at the country’s sea borders peaked in the summer of 2015, exerting asphyxiating pressure on the local authorities and highlighting the gaps in the organisation and operation of first reception95 which was and remains the first link in the chain of the management of mixed populations, due to the task of identification and verification of vulnerable cases, and mainly those entitled to international protection according to the provisions of Law 3907/2011. The Ombudsman, with a public intervention after his visit in June 2015 on the islands of Lesvos, Kos and Leros, recommended, among other things (such as the coordination of the co-competent services at central and local level with management plans for each island and plans to decongest the critical services), the operation of First Reception Centers with the procedures and specifications imposed by law. Over the next months, entries into the islands took on explosive dimensions, and in August and September the State took certain measures in the direction of the Ombudsman’s proposals, e.g. the closed First Reception Center wing in Moria, Lesvos, opened, without however being adequate for screening, according to Law 3907/2011, for all arrivals on the island. These recommendations made by the Ombudsman were still valid and the regional offices, or rather asylum teams on the islands were still understaffed in 2015, while some avoided (Lesvos, 2015 and 2016) providing any substantial data to the Ombudsman, referring to the central service. 94 Annual Report 2014, pg. 152 et seq. 95 In June 2015, teams from the Greek Ombudsman visited Lesvos, Kos and Leros, islands of the first line in terms of entry rates, and discovered that the services responsible for reception and management of irregular migrants arriving from the country’s sea borders at best were unable to handle in a timely fashion the flows they were receiving, and were implementing only a small part of the procedures, whereas there were no First Reception Centers on the islands, not even in Lesvos where a relevant wing had been constructed and remained locked up. Using officers with police duties, from the Coast Guard or the Hellenic Police, to staff the First Reception services, falling under the competence of the Deputy Minister of Interior, it was found that they were at risk of becoming dead letter. The dispersion of the competences between services belonging to different agencies (the former Ministries of Public Order, Maritime, Interior regarding the Migration competence) appears to have created an even greater lack of coordination at local level. 31