psychosocial services. Serious shortcomings were however noted in 2021 due to the insufficient number of medical staff in the RIC (see also Identification). Security personnel in CCACs: Surplus private security personnel guard each accommodation and other section of the CCACs, without presence of interpreters, with endogenous inability to communicate the needs of the residents considering the inability of habitants to access services and exit the residence containers sections without an asylum card. 2.2.2 Reception and identification procedures in Evros People arriving through the Evros border are not subject to the EU-Türkiye statement. Therefore, they are not subjected to the fast-track border procedure and there is no geographical restriction imposed on them upon release. Persons entering Greece through the Greek-Turkish land border in Evros are however subject to reception and identification procedures at the Reception and Identification Centre (RIC) in Fylakio, Orestiada, which was inaugurated in 2013. People transferred to the RIC in Fylakio are subject to a “restriction of freedom of movement” applied as a de facto detention measure, meaning that they remain restricted within the premises of the RIC for the full 25-day period. In some cases, detention in the RIC exceeded one month, as an initial quarantine period was applied. More specifically, the National Public Health Organisation (ΕΟΔΥ) conducted COVID-19 Rapid Tests on every newcomer, prior to their entry into the RIC. Following that and regardless of the result, a quarantine scheme was imposed on all of them as a precaution. No registration by the Reception and Identification Service (RIS) took place before the end of the quarantine period. However, newcomers were formally recorded with their temporary data from the Border Guard Units before being put into quarantine. 174 The application of blanket COVID-19 restrictions was halted during the course of the reporting period and isolation was imposed only on individuals who tested positive for coronavirus. Depending on the number of arrivals, new arrivals, including families and minors, once detected and apprehended by the authorities, may first be transferred to a border guard police station or the pre-removal centre in Fylakio, where they remain in detention (so called ‘pre-RIC detention’) pending their transfer to the RIC Fylakio. ‘Pre-RIC detention’ of several days or even weeks has occurred in instances where new arrivals surpassed the accommodation capacity of the RIC Fylakio. 175 Their detention “up to the time that [the person] will be transferred to Evros (Fylakio) RIC in order to be subject to reception and identification procedures”, as justified in the relevant detention decisions, has no legal basis in national law (see Grounds for Detention). By the end of 2022, the period of pre-RIC detention was limited to a few days as far as GCR is aware. By the end of September 2022, 3,392 individuals were registered by the RIS in Evros, out of which 2,857 were men and 535 were women.176 Information on capacity of the RIC and the number of individuals residing in the RIC during the reporting period were not made available. Within 2022, the lodging of asylum applications was no longer conducted by the GAS. In the scope of Reception and Identification procedures, RIS conducted the registration of the asylum applications of the newcomers, where all personal details of the applicants and the reasons for seeking international protection were recorded. Registration took place immediately upon arrival for all newcomers (single adults, families and UAMs). In a considerable number of cases concerning UAMs, the registration of the asylum application took place before they were referred/ appointed to a child protection actor. After 25 days, the majority of applicants who were not considered vulnerable (especially single men) were referred to pre-removal facilities on the mainland (mostly in PRDF of Xanthi and Paranesti), where they remained under detention. By the end of 2022, after the maximum period of 25 days, or in some cases 174 175 176 Human Rights 360, ‘The European and national asylum policy at the land borders of Evros’, 18 February 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3Jic757. Communication from the UNHCR (15.5.2019) in the M.S.S. and Rahimi groups v. Greece (Applications No.30696/09, 8687/08), available at: https://bit.ly/39PPbt7. https://bit.ly/40KHON5 50