In November 2022, the RIS accepted that a person was identified after their full registration interview, which occurs prior to being provided with an asylum seekers card. During this time, full registration interviews usually occurred within the first week of arrival. The RIS claimed that as long as someone had undergone their full registration interview, they would be able to leave the CCAC, even if they did not have an ID card, as long as they asked for permission to leave the day before their exit. Even after the change, however, IHR found that the privately contracted G4S security staff continued to prevent people from leaving if they did not have an asylum card (21). Moreover, that people must ask permission to leave was held to nevertheless constitute detention in the ECtHR decision of Khalifa v Italy (22). From November 2022 to June 2023, IHR noted that people were receiving their ‘restriction of freedom’ orders well after they had arrived to the CCAC (i.e. days after their police interview). While the order was provided in stages as required by Greek Law, in practice IHR observed that the order for restriction of freedom was automatically extended, thereby violating the requirement that an extension is both factually and legal justified (article 40(a)). At times people were provided with two orders, the initial and the extension, at the same time. This act is both absurd and performative, showcasing how the measures are implemented with little regard for the substantive aim but rather to appear as if legal obligations are upheld. Moreover, delegating responsibility to G4S allowed the authorities to ignore the ways in which the methods to supposedly bypass the blanket restriction to the camp were manifestly and practically inaccessible. From February 2023 to June 2023, there were low arrivals of people to the CCAC with 0 arrivals in April, 63 in May and 29 in June (26). This drastically changed by the end of June. The significance of pushbacks and the 14 June Pylos shipwreck are beyond the scope of this paper, but nevertheless important context to a change in arrivals to the CCAC. Aegean Boat Report noted that in June/July 2023–following the Pylos shipwreck–arrivals to Greece increased by 190% and recorded pushbacks decreased by over 90% (27). Actors noticed a change in tactics by the Hellenic Coastguard, in that they are increasingly rescuing boats and bringing them to the islands (27). Those who began arriving in June were held in the two former mandatory quarantine zones—now referred to by the authorities as temporary accommodation zones—for periods of up to two weeks (28). The two temporary accommodation zones are physically separated from the remainder of the CCAC, cut off from access to any medical and psychological support. Moreover, the zones do not have separate accommodation for unaccompanied minors or female single-headed households. The authorities continued to issue ‘restriction of freedom’ orders in stages but only after people had been detained for around 2 weeks to a month. Moreover, when the orders were provided, they were often given to people a week after the date written on the order for detention. By August 2023, Samos continued to experience a sharp increase in arrivals. With this, the time people were detained in the temporary accommodation zones became longer and longer. The restriction of freedom orders were increasingly abandoned. Police interviews, which normally happen a day or two after arrival, were delayed for several weeks. Therefore, people did not receive their police note. The police notes are substantially relied upon as a form of identification, particularly when delays issuing asylum cards persist. This creates an additional risk for people who are quickly transferred from the island but do not have any formal identifying documents. 9