124 Interview with representative of PIKPA, in Lesvos, on 13 December 2017. To be noted, even a year following the Statement’s implementation, in March 2017, the rise in suicidal tendencies, post-traumatic stress disorders and sever psychological-psychiatric conditions, all of which directly connected to asylum seekers’ living conditions in the RICs and their constant state of fear and uncertainty for the future, had already been documented, inter alia, by the NGO Medecins du Monde (MsF). Zotou, E., ‘Κατάθλιψη, έντονες αυτοκτονικές τάσεις και μη καταγεγραμμένα θύματα βασανιστηρίων’ [Depression, intense suicidal tendencies and non-registered victims of torture], I Avgi, 18 March 2017, <http://www.avgi.gr/article/10811/7989422/1-katathlipse-entones-autoktonikes-taseis-kai-me-katagegrammena-thymata-basanisterion>, last accessed 29 March 2018. 125 Also see UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Aegean Islands Fact Sheet, UNHCR [website], 31 January 2018, <https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/62215>, last accessed 29 March 2018. 126 Caritas Hellas employee, in Lesvos. Interview held on 13 December 2017. 127 Indicatively, in December 2017, an alleged 9 year old, living in the RIC of Vial, in Chios, tried to hang himself with his shirt. Georgoulis, N., ‘Αποπειράθηκε να κρεμαστεί με το μανίκι του ανήλικος Σύριος στη ΒΙΑΛ’ [Minor Syrian attempted to hang himself by his sleeve in Vial], politis chios, 2 December 2017, <http://www.politischios.gr/horia/apopeirathike-na-kremastei-me-maniki-toy-anilikossyrios-sti-bial>, last accessed 29 March 2018. 128 Interview with RIS employees at the UAM section in Moria, Lesvos, on 15 December 2017. 129 Also see Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), ‘Confronting the mental health emergency on Samos and Lesvos: Why the containment of asylum seekers on the Greek islands must end’, MSF [website], October 2017, <http://www.msf.org/sites/msf.org/files/2017_10_mental_health_greece_report_final_low.pdf>, last accessed 30 March 2018. 130 Interviews with staff of Arsis and KEELPNO in Kos, on 11 and 12 January 2018, respectively. 131 As of the time of our respective visits (January 2018 and December 2017) in both Kos and Lesvos there was only one ambulance and/or transportation means available for the transfer of beneficiaries from the RICs and to the respective, island, public hospitals. Information acquired via Interviews with RIS employees at the single women section in Moria, Lesvos (15 December 2017), and with the RIC Director at Pyli, Kos (10 January 2018). 132 Representative of PIKPA in Lesvos. Interview held on 13 December 2017. 133 As we were informed by the Hellenic Red Cross (HRC) in Evros on the 20th of December 2017 –a day before its leaving the RIC– throughout the duration of their deployment in the RIC (June 2017-20 December 2017), some 3-4 cases of cancer patient, which were in need of immediate treatment had been transferred and subjected to surgery at the hospitals within 10 days, after which their chemotherapy had begun. Information acquired through interview with the Hellenic Red Cross at the RIC at Fylakio, Evros, on 20 December 2017. 134 Indeed, throughout all the regions visited, officials would make clear distinctions between refugees and economic migrants, largely based on their being citizens of so-called “high” and “low recognitions rate nationalities”. These, in turn, to an extent (albeit not always, as at times even Afghan citizens who have a refugee status recognition rate of 68.3% in Greece, would be perceived as to-be-expulsed “economic migrants”) relied on the Greek Asylum Service’s statistics on “rates” of refugee recognition per nationality. These “rates” (available in English), can be found at http://asylo.gov.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Greek_Asylum_Service_Statistical_Data_EN.pdf . Nevertheless, it needs to be pointed that, despite their offering an overview of the evolution of applications for international protection, in themselves, are not and cannot provide a solid basis for a priori, as was the case during our research, considering some nationals as non-beneficiaries of international protection, as such perceptions would inter alia also contravene article 3 of the Geneva Convention, with respect to the non-discrimination of international protection applicants on the basis of “race, religion or country of origin”. UN General Assembly, Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 28 July 1951, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 189, p. 137, <http://www.refworld.org/docid/3be01b964.html>, last accessed 26 March 2018. 135 Lodovici, M., S., et. al., ‘Integration of refugees in Greece, Hungary and Italy: Comparative Analysis’, European Parliament [website], 20 December 2017, p.86, <http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=IPOL_STU%282017%29614194>, last accessed 28 March 2018. 45