13 the reintroduction of the illegal stay practice.19 medical conditions. Despite their statements, Specifically, Equal Rights represented six the authorities did not account for these asylum seekers who were detained in the PRDC declarations in their detention orders. In the on the basis of Art. 30 of L. 3907/2011, although case of the UAM, a lawyer from Equal Rights they had all expressed a will to apply for asylum alerted Kos RAO before his registration of his but had not yet gone through the appropriate obvious minority before accompanying him to reception and identification procedures. One his asylum registration. At his asylum was initially detained in August 2022, three registration, he again stated that he was a were detained in July 2023, and two were minor and asked to be registered as such. Under detained in September 2023. The asylum Greek law, the authorities should have treated seekers were detained for an average period of him as a minor until proven otherwise and approximately 37 days before registering for therefore transferred him from detention to the asylum. safe zone in the CCAC and referred him to an 20 As raised in the second edition of the report, even once our clients were able to register for age assessment procedure.22 Instead, and in contravention of the law, the authorities asylum, the authorities generally renewed their prolonged his detention.23 detention under the asylum law as detention is Moreover, the issuance of new detention orders allowed for up to 50 days and can subsequently for three of the four clients after their be renewed. Of the six clients represented registration as asylum seekers was not during this reporting period, all four had their automatic, meaning the newly registered detention renewed after registering for asylum, asylum seekers continued to be detained with a and on average spent a total of approximately detention order on the basis of their return 99.25 days in detention. The two remaining instead of under the relevant asylum law. As clients were not included in this analysis such, there was a period of time where the because their detention cases began towards newly registered asylum seekers were detained the end of this reporting period. unlawfully and without a relevant detention In the four examined cases, the clients’ new order. Only after Equal Rights staff extensively 21 detention orders were also issued in a template manner and without an individualized assessment. In one case the client stated that he was an unaccompanied minor (UAM), while another declared that he suffered from chronic communicated with the police and the Regional Asylum Office (RAO) were the individuals issued new detention orders under the relevant asylum law. In this way, Equal Rights staff communication observed that between a the lack of relevant According to the police, detention under the illegal stay scheme continued to take place for those who were caught with forged documents, meaning for those with ongoing criminal cases. However for at least three of cases Equal Rights represented, there was no ongoing criminal procedure. These three individuals arrived at a different island, were transferred to Rhodes, and then detained in the Kos PRDC with a return decision from Rhodes Police Directorate based on the lack of legal documents (risk of absconding). 20 The client in August 2022 was detained for 18 days before registering for asylum, while the remaining three detained in July 2023 were detained for 43 days before registering for asylum. 21 Art. 50(5)(b) L. 4939/2022. 22 Art. 80(3) L. 4939/2022. 23 Ibid. 19 ‘Still detained and forgotten’ – Update on Detention Policies, Practices, and Conditions on Kos 2023/24