“If the application for international protection is submitted before a non-competent authority [i.e. police, coast guard and RIS], that authority is obliged to notify promptly the competent Receiving Authority [i.e. Asylum Service] using the most appropriate way and to refer the applicant to it”. (Article 36 (4) of Greek L. 4375/2016) Lastly, albeit in a different context (non-availability of official structure), up to June 2016, when the Kos RIC entered into function and could thus start accommodating newcomers, many refugees, asylum seekers and migrants alike were inter alia kept detained in cells found at the 2nd Regional Police Directorate of Dodekanisa (Β’ Αστυνομική Διεύθυνση Δωδεκανήσου). Detention, as is most often the case in such facilities, took place under inhumane living conditions (e.g. 58 persons in 22 person capacity cells),30 usually without or with very problematic access to a lawyer (e.g. no access to a phone), and for periods which at times reached and/or even exceeded the legally allowed period of three months. Furthermore, and even though after the RIC’s operationalization formerly detained asylum seekers started gradually being transferred to the latter, this practice did not end. Rather, it continued well into the first months of 2017,31 only to start scaling down in February, and, as per information acquired during our visit,32 ultimately come to an end at some point in April of the same year (2017). Despite this, its effects have had far reaching repercussions for those unfortunate enough to arrive in Kos at the time. Sample case in Kos Case of male (Syrian), who was a victim of torture. He arrived in Kos in April 2016 and declared his will to apply for asylum. At the time the RIC was not yet operational, therefore the authorities seemingly deemed it necessary to initially keep him detained in the cells of the 2nd police Directorate of Dodekanisa. His asylum request was ultimately registered 6 months later, in November 2016, but for reasons unknown it was to be examined by the Regional Asylum Office (RAO) of Rhodes, instead of the one found in Kos. Throughout this time he was kept solely in detention, without undergoing any vulnerability assessment, as it was considered that his arrival prior to the local RIC’s operationalization, made the latter (RIC of Kos) non-competent for his case. More than 2 years following his arrival, in May 2018, and after two negative decisions on the admissibility of his claim, he has yet to undergo a vulnerability assessment, while the examination of his case (currently before the Administrative Court of Appeal) has been postponed for 2019. 13