appointments we have to pay the expenses for the public transportation by ourselves and we go without any translator. A doctor appointment without a translator is like no appointment.’807 Ιn January 2023, a 45 year-old Congolese national residing in Ritsona camp was found dead in his shelter. Reportedly,808 during the night, the man had been complaining of feeling chest pains and was requesting medical support. Yet as further reported,809 the facility, which was at the time accommodating roughly 2,000 persons, lacked sufficient medical personnel, practically operating only one first aid station that was not operational during night hours. Though an ambulance was called, as per complaints by the camp’s residents, it arrived with delay, and upon being transferred to the hospital in Chalkida (roughly 15 km away) the man was confirmed dead. Residents of the facility reacted by demanding adequate health coverage. Regarding housing arrangements, with very few exceptions (e.g. 8 tents in all of the mainland camps), there has been a significant reduction in the emergency units used to address accommodation needs, which were mostly covered through containers, apartments/rooms, and shelters by March 2022810 . This is also due to the significant decrease in the number of people hosted in the camps which were all operating below their capacity by December 2021, with the sole exception of Elaionas camp in Athens (109.23% occupancy).811 At the same time, however, more than 2,261 unregistered persons continued residing in mainland camps in March 2022. As far as GCR is aware, this includes persons whose asylum applications have not yet been registered, beneficiaries of international protection, and persons with rejected asylum applications, thus highlighting a significantly underreported issue that is closely linked to access to reception conditions, integration policies and prospects, and the persistent application of the “third safe country” (STC) concept by the Greek Asylum Service, which has inter alia continued leading a large number of asylum applicants in a state of legal limbo.812 That being said, in 2022 and the beginning of 2023, GCR has increasingly received complaints by residents of the camps, regarding poor and unsanitary conditions (e.g. very high levels of humidity, lack of warm water, holes in the walls etc.) in housing units of at least some mainland camps. Moreover, since October 2021, the MoMA decided to interrupt the provision of food to residents of the camps that were no longer in the asylum procedure, as a means to force them out of the accommodation. As noted by 26 civil society organisations in the same month, of those affected, 25% are women (including pregnant women), single-headed families, 40% children, chronic patients, and patients with special medical and nutritional conditions. In some places, food is not even provided to those put in quarantine due to COVID- 19”.813 By November 2021, this food crisis was affecting 60% of all mainland camp residents,814 many of whom were beneficiaries of international protection who continue to be forced to stay and/or return to camps in 2021 due to a lack of alternatives as well. In several cases known to GCR, some of them stayed even after having completed the sole available large-scale integration program (Helios) in Greece. Though specific statistics are not available for 2022, GCR and other organisations are aware of similar cases in 2022 as well. In December 2022, media also reported that up to 1,000 residents of Ritsona camp were not receiving food, likely due to having received a negative asylum decision. Amongst them there were families with 807 808 809 810 811 812 813 814 RSA, ‘A Step Backwards for Protection and Integration: On The Termination of the Estia II Housing Programme for Asylum Applicants’, 22 December 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3HmVE1F. To Kouti tis Pandoras, ‘Dead refugee in Ritsona facility’, 16 January 2023, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3n2wmid. 902.gr, ‘The death of a refugee in Ritsona proves the deterioration of health structures’, 18 January 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3HeP7WG. IOM, Supporting the Greek Authorities in Managing the National Reception System for Asylum Seekers and Vulnerable Migrants (SMS), March 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/43mIVEv. IOM, Supporting the Greek Authorities in Managing the National Reception System for Asylum Seekers and Vulnerable Migrants (SMS), December 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3L4TFhN. In 2022, the number of applications rejected as inadmissible due to ongoing application of the ‘safe third country’ concept in the case of Türkiye, stood at 3,409 at first instance and 2,696 at second instance. MoMA, Reply to parliamentary question, 156079/2022, 16 March 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3Lid1ln. Joint Statement by 26 NGOs, ‘Are you eligible to eat?’, 18 October 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3LovDyr. Inter alia see Joint Statement by 27 NGOs, ‘NGOs raise alarm at growing hunger amongst refugees and asylum seekers in Greece’, 25 November 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3iLj1Fe. 170