and a risk of the individual’s absconding has been established or the person is not cooperating with return proceedings or poses a threat to national security.14 None of the above procedural guarantees seems to have been followed by the Greek state in practice. The authorities automatically and indiscriminately placed under custody all individuals arriving in March 2020 on the Eastern Aegean islands and issued deportation and detention orders against them. None of the persons underwent the reception and identification procedures prescribed by law for all undocumented arrivals, including an assessment of vulnerability.15 The Lesvos Police Directorate issued uniform “deportation decisions based on readmission procedures to Turkey” (απόφαση απέλασης αλλοδαπού βάσει διαδικασίας επανεισδοχής) in conjunction with detention orders on the basis of irregular entry contrary to Article 83 of Law 3386/2005.16 In addition to the latter, the decisions cited the Greece-Turkey bilateral readmission agreement (suspended in 2018 according to Turkey)17 and the EU-Turkey deal,18 while they mentioned that the persons were at risk of absconding. However. they made no reference to any individual circumstances, to the International Protection Act, to the fact that the intention to lodge an asylum application had been expressed, or to the Decree. They were notified to the applicants in Greek with no interpreter present. The police orders failed to establish the exceptional grounds required under national law for the imposition of detention and lacked any individualised assessment. Deportation was even ordered vis-à-vis unaccompanied children and pregnant women who are expressly protected from removal according to Greek law.19 It should be stressed that the individuals remained in pre-removal detention despite the fact that readmissions to Turkey had been suspended since mid-March 2020, presumably due to the COVID-19 outbreak.20 Moreover, the Greek authorities have been informed by Frontex that the Agency “does not, and will not, support the return of third-country nationals who arrived in Greece during the temporarily suspension of the asylum procedures. The possible support of Frontex in returning these specific migrants may be granted only in case Greece will resume their right to have access to the asylum procedure and ensure individual assessments when issuing return decisions.”21 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Article 30 Law 3907/2011, Gov. Gazette A’ 7/26.01.2011; Article 15 Directive 2008/115/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third-country nationals (“Return Directive”) [2008] OJ L348/98. Article 39 International Protection Act. Gov. Gazette A’ 212/23.8.2005, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/2xrqZiZ. Reuters, ‘Turkey suspends migrant readmission deal with Greece: Anadolu’, 7 June 2018, available at: https://reut.rs/2VM0BII. Note that the EU-Turkey deal has not been ratified as an agreement with legally binding effect in Greece. Article 79(1)(e) Law 3386/2005; Article 41 Law 3907/2011. Correspondence from the Directorate of Migration Management of the Hellenic Police dated 30 March 2020 stated that “readmission operations to Turkey have been suspended for an indefinite period of time”, as well as reports of closure of the land border and interruption of air, rail and road connections to Turkey in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak: Kathimerini, ‘Η Τουρκία κλείνει τα σύνορα με Ελλάδα και Βουλγαρία’, 18 March 2020, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/2ylaYLn; CNN, ‘Κορωνοϊός: Τέλος οι πτήσεις από Βρετανία και Τουρκία’, 23 March 2020, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/2XHXUdL. Frontex, Letter by Fabrice Leggeri, Executive Director, to RSA, ORD/ECRet/DiToAl/4007/2020, 27 April 2020, on file with the author. RSA LEGAL NOTE │ 2020 4