Crossing Evros Borders in Numbers Following the closure of the Western Balkan route, the EU Turkey Statement came into implementation in 2016, however the land border of Evros were not included in the scope of the Statement; subsequently, an increase of flows at the area through Evros river, the natural border between Greece and Turkey in the north, has been witnessed. According to the official statistics of 2019, 14.887 people arrived through the land borders and 4.875 through the sea borders, putting more pressure mainly in northern Evros. As per December 2019, 440 people were hosted at the RIC of Fylakio, which is the only closed Registration and Identification center in Greece, a number that importantly exceeds its maximum capacity which was of 318 persons at this specific period. The number of unaccompanied and separated children (UASCs) under “protective custody”, a measure that is essentially equivalent to detention, within the RIC remained high, reaching at the end of December 2019 the 245 children. Particularly, during the last three months of 2019 (October-November-December) 4.979 people arrived at the RIC, among whom 189 were UASCs. According to the latest statistics, since the beginning of 2020, 2.076 people arrived through the land borders, approximately 250 people through the sea borders of the Evros region, while 7.623 people arrived through the Greek islands2. During January 2020, 861 individuals were registered within the RIC, out of whom 138 were unaccompanied minors. During February 2020, there was a total of 754 registered individuals within the RIC, 14 of whom were unaccompanied minors. Within the RIC of Fylakio, the restriction of freedom of movement should, according to the legislation, be applied only in an extreme need, always in the best interest of children and for a maximum of twenty-five (25) days. After the completion of the reception and identification procedures, the newly arrived persons should be either released, or referred to pre-removal detention facilities, such as the Pre-removal Detention Center of Orestiada (PRDC), where they can be further detained in view of removal. In exceptional cases, the restriction of movement for the UASCs may 2 https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean/location/5179, Last updated 03 May 2020 4|Page