152 Indicatively, from 751 in the first ten months of 2016, in 2017 (Greek) police apprehensions on charges of people smuggling had significantly increased, reaching 1,156. Data available at the Hellenic Police website at http://www.astynomia.gr/images/stories//2017/statistics17/allodapwn/10_statistics_all_2017_dia.png. The case of Patra: the re-emergence of an exit-point to Europe Between the 29th and 30th of November 2017, we visited the city-port of Patra.153 Patra, as already mentioned in the project’s introduction, is not a border entry point for mixed migration flows. Thus with the exception of a Praksis-run shelter for unaccompanied minors, it has neither a RIC nor any other type of hospitality center, as the city is not officially designated as a hosting place for newcomers. Patra is, on the other hand, a transit zone, with its close proximity to Italy (via sea routes) having for years constituted it an “irregular exit” (from Greece to Italy and then central/northern Europe) for refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants, alike; a trend which was brought to a halt during 2015 and the first months of 2016, when the small village of Idomeni near Greece’s northern borders served as a gathering point for those wishing to venture further into Europe.154 That being said, as a direct effect of the closure of the “Balkan Route” and the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement, Patra has been once more experiencing a steady increase in (secondary movement) arrivals throughout the past year. Arrivals, specifically, of post-March 2016 newcomers who, largely being/becoming disillusioned with their prospects in Greece (e.g. long periods of confinement and a still struggling Greek economy), have been reaching Patra with the aim of (irregularly) boarding on one of the ferries leaving from the city’s port to Italy. Once in Patra, they gather at two of the city’s derelict factories (Avex and Ladopoulos) –found across the city’s port (literally, across the road)– which, in lack of alternative housing sites, serve as their temporary accommodation. Living conditions at the factories are inhumane and hazardous, with the crumbling walls and shattered windows, amassing piles of garbage and lack of toilets, leaving the factories’ inhabitants –many of who are forced to sleep on the ground– without protection from the weather and exposed to a series of hygiene risks.155 “you have to be hardened to be able to survive there…in the summer [for instance] the heat was insufferable…[yet] they were just standing there; without food, without bathrooms, without water…and with garbage [all over the place]…that’s why [you won’t see] any elderly persons [living there]…an elderly person wouldn’t be able to [survive] there.”156 At the time of our visit (November 29-30, 2017), more than 400 third-country nationals/stateless persons were living in these conditions, with many having fled the islands, and some having arrived via the Evros land border. As we were informed, 157 most had asylum seekers’ cards,158 with the vast majority being nationals of Pakistan (approximately 60%), Afghanistan, and to a lesser extent Iraq, Iran, Morocco and Algeria. Amongst them, some 60 were unaccompanied minors of 8 to 18 years of age, with average ages for the factories’ exclusively single men inhabitants ranging between 17 47