Arbitrary returns of registered asylum seekers at the Evros border Between August 2016 and December 2017, out of 113 cases undertaken by GCR’s Evros-based lawyer, two reported having previously fallen victims of arbitrary expulsion at the hands of the Greek police. The cases concerned a Syrian male, and a highly vulnerable, pregnant, Algerian female, both of who –at the time of the reported deportation– were registered asylum seekers in Greece. In the former’s case, the man had entered Greece in February 2016 and, after three months of detention at the Fylakio Pre-Removal Center, finally succeeded in having his asylum request registered. As part of the (at the time) ongoing relocation scheme, he was accepted for relocation by another MS, and was preparing to begin his new life. Soon afterwards, he was apprehended in Alexandroupoli by the Greek police, without his documents (asylum seeker’s card), which he had lost. In the latter’s case, the woman had entered Greece alongside her mother and minor sister, all of whom had applied for asylum at the Thessaloniki RAO. For reasons unknown, a few days before her scheduled interview at said RAO, she was found in Alexandroupoli, where she was apprehended by the Greek police. As per their statements, both applicants were, following their apprehension, forcefully returned to Turkey, alongside an unspecified number of mostly Syrian applicants, following which they both managed to re-enter Greece (again, via Evros). The first applicant in November 2016, alongside four other vulnerable persons, all of whom passed away during the journey. Upon (re)entry, and despite his still being a registered asylum seeker in Greece, he was once more apprehended and detained; albeit, this time, at the Pre-Removal Center in Xanthi. In the meantime, his relocation was indefinitely postponed. The second applicant was found sleeping in the streets of Istanbul/Constantinople a short time after her deportation. Upon (re)entry, she was once more apprehended and detained at the local RIC (Fylakio). Following GCR’s intervention, she was released and the Prosecutor was notified of her case by the Asylum Service. Pre-RIC Detention Notwithstanding the gravity of the aforementioned incidents, which have for years necessitated a full-scale, state-led investigation, increasing arrivals at the Evros land border have further added to the highly arbitrary and highly concerning set of practices observed in the region. 10