application are often granted many months later.863 These delays, which have persisted in Malakasa RIC during the first months of 2024 as well,864 have resulted in applicants’ frequent inability to access asylum procedures for prolonged periods of time, during which they do not enjoy any of the rights granted to them by their status as applicants, including access to reception. Most importantly, lthough the new platform serves the purpose of scheduling the registration of a person’s will to apply for international protection and should thus be sufficient to establish a person’s status as an asylum applicant, the ongoing practice by the MoMA not only fails to recognise recourse to the platform as tantamount to a person expressing their will to apply for asylum, but on the contrary, the attestation granted through the platform clearly states that it does not amount to proof of such will. As increasingly observed by GCR’s Legal Unit, during 2023, this has frequently resulted in the arbitrary use of detention for the purpose of returning people who had already registered their will to apply for asylum via the platform. In at least eight cases represented by GCR in 2023, most of which concerned applicants from Afghanistan, competent First Instance Administrative Courts have also ruled that upon requesting the scheduling of the registration of an application for international protection via the platform, the persons concerned receive the status of an asylum applicant, as per the law. Yet instead of reviewing the practice, the Greek authorities filled a request for the first such Decision to be revoked before the Administrative Court of Kavala. The application for revocation was rejected as inadmissible by the Court.865 A petition for violation of EU law on the same issue has been filed by the GCR since December 2022 (CHAP(2022)03534), and is pending before the European Commission.866 Lastly, a new, severely worrying practice identified as of early 2024 in the Samos CCAC, where amidst increased arrivals people have been residing in deplorable conditions, raises further questions as to applicants’ effective access to reception conditions. Namely, as observed in February 2024,867 applicants are asked whether they would like to sign a solemn declaration stating that they do not wish to reside in the Samos CCAC or any other regional facility of the RIS, which in practice, seems to amount to being called to choose between prolonging their stay in a facility that utterly fails to meet reception standards, or renouncing their right to reception conditions, in order to be able to escape these conditions.868 Moreover, based on the same observations, upon provided with this choice, applicants are not informed that, if they agree, they can lose access to the financial aid provided in the context of reception and, for those that may be granted international protection, to the Helios integration program, as both have a residency requirement strictly linked to ongoing stay in the Greek reception system. A similar practice has been observed in the Evros RIC, which since its operationalisation in 2013 has been exclusively functioning as a closed facility, albeit to the extent that GCR can be aware, applicants there are also called to sign that they have been informed, with the support of an interpreter, of the possible consequences of signing the aforementioned declaration.869 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 Also see RSA, Registration of asylum applications in the new mainland RIC in Greece, February 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/3s32d73j, pp. 5-6. As per information shared during the 22 February 2024 National Protection Working Group. An excerpt of the relevant decision (ΔΠρΚαβ ΑΡ516/2023) can be found in GCR, HIAS & RSA, Greek Asylum Case Law Report: Issue 1/2023, 5 July 2023, available (Greek) at: https://tinyurl.com/pejs4m9m, p. 57 Also see GCR, Administrative courts: The detention of asylum seekers pending full registration, to whom the Ministry of Migration & Asylum does not recognize the status of applicant, is illegal, 21 March 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/5n7arpsa. Information acquired during the 15 February 2024 Legal Actors Working Group and re-confirmed during the 22 February 2024 National Protection Working Group. As further reported in February 2024 by legal aid actors under the newly established Border Legal Aid subworking group, which covers the islands of Lesvos, Samos and Kos, the text of the solemn declaration is as follows: “I do not wish to be accommodated at the CCAC of Samos or any other regional service of RIS. I will live on my own and the address is…… and I have been informed of the consequences of my nonappearance before the examining authority”. Information acquired on 12 March 2024. As per information inter alia shared during the CEAS sub-working group of 4 March 2024. 177