end of March until cash machines could be installed outside of camps to prevent people from going into nearby towns and villages and creating queues.13 The low quality of food distributed in camps meant than many people were struggling to eat healthily as they could no longer supplement their meals. As A., an English teacher who has lived in Kos RIC for nearly 11 months, reported: "The food provided to us is inedible and 90% of the food given to us is thrown away... we were fine with the situation before the lockdown but now, as the lockdown is in place we can't go outside and buy food to cook for ourselves... Now we rely on their food which can’t be eaten 100%." 14 When the cash card payments were finally made people had become desperate and rushed to leave. This caused panic in the camp, which was brutally repressed by the police, as witnessed by M., a university graduate and freelance painter and decorator who has lived in the hotspot for a year: "Two days ago, people in the camp received financial assistance and everyone wanted to go shopping. Normally, we receive financial assistance at the beginning of the month, but it is late this month. A lot of people need to shop, but here only 65 people are allowed to go out. Here we are more than a thousand and more. It has become a mess. The police beat the women and men to separate." 15 held in a separate area.19 On other islands, multiple cases of people being left to fend for themselves and self-isolate at their arrival site were also reported in the month of March by Aegean Boat Report.20 Other promised measures included the development of special health units inside the RICs, to include medical clinics, isolation spaces for sick individuals for preventive purposes, and treatment of any infected cases, which are yet to emerge, and the suspension of all visits and activities by external organisations.21 All of these measures, or lack thereof, highlight the many possible dangers of adopting a detention centre approach on the islands, especially as current detention practices in Greece have already been widely condemned.22 In a report by the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published on the 9th of April 2019, following their seventh periodic visit to Greece from the 28th of March to the 9th of April, many concerns were raised over general detention conditions in Greece. For Kos and Leros these decisions had other very direct consequences, at least on paper, as the Government announced that the conversion of the RICs on Kos and Leros into closed sites will begin immediately,16 despite the fact that construction was stopped on other islands after public outcry.17 Yet, when a volunteer from Echo100Plus on Leros was interviewed for this report on the 3rd of April, building work was still not taking place. New arrivals to Kos in the month of March were also not taken to the mainland but instead placed directly in the Pre-departure and Removal Centre adjacent to the RIC, with no screening process for COVID-19. New arrivals to Kos in the month of March were also not taken to the mainland but instead placed directly in the Pre-departure and Removal Centre adjacent to the RIC, with no screening process for COVID-19. 18 Between 250 and 263 people were integrated into the general detention population in this way, though Photo credit: A. 13. Information provided by Echo100Plus in interview by Emma Musty with Catharina Kahane, 30 March 2020 Interview conducted by Emma Musty online with A. on the 14 April 2020 Interview conducted by Emma Musty online with M. on the 6 April 2020 16. https://help.unhcr.org/greece/coronavirus 17. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/17/greece-pauses-plans-for-new-refugee-detention-centres-on-islands 18. https://datastudio.google.com/reporting/1CiKR1_R7-1UbMHKhzZe_Ji_cvqF7xlfH/page/SfM0 19. Information supplied by Equal Rights Beyond Borders in interview by Emma Musty with Robert Nestler on the 16 April 2020 20. https://web.facebook.com/AegeanBoatReport/posts/812842672572172 21. https://help.unhcr.org/greece/coronavirus 22. https://rm.coe.int/16809e2059 (p.1) 23. https://rm.coe.int/16809e2059 (p.1) 14. 15. 05 | The Invisible Islands | Covid-19 Restrictions and Impact Although the focus of this report was detention in prison facilities in Greece in general, the report gives a clear overview of possible abuses in other detention facilities... Although the focus of this report was detention in prison facilities in Greece in general, the report gives a clear overview of possible abuses in other detention facilities as many of the problems reported are the same and are reported by asylum seekers in police detention and Pre-removal centres – overcrowding, serious violence between detainees often leading to severe injury and sometimes death, low staffing levels and inadequate 23 health care provision.