Conditions at the RICs The Reception Directive states clearly that “Member States shall ensure that material reception conditions provide an adequate standard of living for applicants, which guarantees their subsistence and protects their physical and mental health”.94 Despite this, throughout their RIC-based confinement, refugees and asylum seekers are exposed to various degrees of –usually– substandard conditions, which negatively impact on both aspects of their health. RIC of Moria: Inhumanity at its lowest On the 11th and 15th of December 2017 we visited the RIC at Moria, Lesvos. The first image we saw was that of a child, exiting his family’s tent, which was found directly next to the overflowing garbage bins. This was just one of many families forced to live under inhumane and degrading conditions in a RIC that has on many occasions been characterized as a “concentration camp”.95 Much like in the winter of 2016, so too in 2017 and especially since October, the renewed surge in arrivals, coupled with the ongoing policy of containment, had made it virtually impossible to accommodate the more than 5,000 (at the time of our visit) of the RIC’s inhabitants (the RIC’s capacity the still lied at 2330 palces)96 in even the most rudimentary type of decent accommodation. As a result, the RIC had been over-flooded by small tents (some on the road), usually shared by more than one inhabitant and/or family, and even those lucky enough to be placed in so-called “pre-fabricated accommodation” (i.e. containers), were crammed by the 20s (20-25 persons/container). Simply put, the atmosphere was suffocating, with no place to breathe or secure even a minute’s privacy. Overcrowding, furthermore, had led to some 500 asylum seekers being exceptionally accommodated outside the RIC’s premises, in an area originally reserved for the creation of recreational spaces (“olive grove”). Accommodation there was offered only in tents, and despite many of the “grove’s” inhabitants consisting of families with children, the area was largely left unsupervised. Things were further aggravated by the RIC’s ever present smell of garbage and sewage waste. Despite efforts –hourly, as we were informed by the cleaning personnel– to maintain even the most rudimentary type of cleanliness to the place, the level of overcrowding constituted this a virtual impossibility. The RIC’s garbage bins where constantly overflowing, as was its sewage system which was on average clogging 20 times per week. “the infrastructure cannot take it…it is not so much an issue of electricity, as much as the rest…storage spaces, spaces for the personnel and for the accommodation of beneficiaries…”97 32