were pregnant women and families with children, were reportedly forcibly removed and illegally sent back to Türkiye at the end of February 2021, after being beaten with batons and stripped of their belongings.870 As also noted by MsF: ‘[t]he designated COVID-19 quarantine sites for new arrivals have become de-facto detention centres. As of mid-January 2021, more than 500 people arriving to the north coast of Lesvos have been confined in the Megala Therma quarantine site, often for weeks at a time, in grossly undignified and inhumane conditions. Our teams provide general healthcare on-site once a week. They have witnessed a very serious and systematic neglect in the provision of essential services, protection and proper access to specialist healthcare. There have also been deeply concerning allegations of asylum seekers being taken from Melaga Therma and returned to Türkiye’.871 As highlighted in the joint bimonthly bulletin on refugees and migrants of GCR / OXFAM / SCI published in July 2022: ‘Double standards are similarly evident in the supposed handling of COVID-19 precautions. All refugees who enter Greece via the Eastern-Aegean islands or Evros are immediately isolated in quarantine areas under the pretext of containing the spread of COVID-19. The quarantine period currently lasts for 5 days, but it can be prolonged if there are positive cases of COVID-19 amongst the group. However, quarantine is no longer required in Greece and no one entering Greece is subjected to this measure,46 apart from people claiming asylum. Ukrainians entering Greece and applying for temporary protection are not being put into quarantine. It therefore remains unclear why one specific group of people is forced to quarantine based solely on the fact that they are seeking asylum’.872 2.3 Destitution Destitution and homelessness still remain matters of concern, despite the efforts made in previous years to increase reception capacity in Greece (see Types of Accommodation). As stated by UNHCR in February 2020, ‘Housing options and services to cater for the present population are scarce countrywide’.873 Though the population of concern has since been significantly reduced, following the termination of ESTIA, which as far as GCR has observed was preceded by a stop in the acceptance of new residents several months before the programme’s termination, this remains valid in 2022 and the start of 2023, as based on observations from the field, particularly after the termination of ESTIA, in several cases applicants preferred pursuing alternatives to cover their survival needs, instead of being forced to remain in isolated, prison-like, camps.874 As noted in May 2022 by an LGBTQI+ applicant from Cameroon, upon entering Greece and being registered on island RIC alongside other newcomers, they did not receive shelter, ‘despite it being midwinter’, as at the time, they were told the RIC was full. As per the person’s accounts, this resulted in being forced to undergo several days living in abandoned houses, without medical care, which was required due to suffering from burns on various body parts and from terrible pains. The person managed to leave the island and reached Athens during the first lockdown, finding a place to stay with the support of a fellow community member, but was soon forced to leave, as the person’s nightmares and screams during nights, wouldn’t let their roommates to sleep. This resulted in ending up again living in an abandoned building. A year later the person underwent surgery and finally managed to contact the asylum service. Yet as 870 871 872 873 874 GCR & Oxfam, Lesbos Bulletin: April 2021, 21 April 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/2SUxV29, 3, refers to Aegean Boat Report, ‘Small Children Left Drifting In Life Rafts In The Aegean Sea!’, 22 February 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3wzapHi; EU Observer, ‘Afghan asylum family beaten in Greece, set adrift at sea’, 25 February 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3dAA1ew; The Guardian, ‘'We were left in the sea': asylum seekers forced off Lesbos’, 19 March 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3mq5JyM. MsF, Constructing Crisis at Europe’s Borders: The EU plan to intensify its dangerous hotspot approach on Greek islands, June 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3tVzwFg, 2. GCR / OXFAM / SCI, Bimonthly bulletin on refugees and migrants on Greece, July 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/45DRD36. UNHCR, Factsheet, Greece: 1-29 February 2020. GCR, ‘Evictions, homeless and setbacks to integration’, 30 November 2022, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3HGKftw. 179