2.1 Conditions in temporary accommodation facilities on the mainland Living conditions in the mainland camps vary depending on the facilities, as different types of accommodation and services are offered at each site. Therefore, although camps are never suitable for long-term accommodation, compliance with the standards of the recast Reception Conditions Directive should be assessed against the situation prevailing in each camp. On this point, it needs to be flagged that increasingly throughout 2023, amidst the handover of site management activities to the Greek state, the situation in mainland camps has evolved into one where less (independent) actors are present or regularly accessing the camps. This has resulted in further hindering effective oversight vis-à-vis reception conditions on the mainland, particularly since IOM stopped publishing data on mainland camps in March 2022, and has been raised as a main concern/gap by actors during the year.966 Further compounding this gap is the comparative lack of media attention to the prevailing situation in mainland –as opposed to island– facilities, even though mainland camps have similar to those on the islands been gradually transformed into prison-like, high security settings for the reception of a vulnerable population group (i.e., asylum applicants),967 with the prevailing environment having direct ramifications on residents’ wellbeing. As noted in an open letter by 32 Refugee Education Coordinators (RECs) working in the camps in May 2023968: “[W]here either the model of "Closed Controlled Centers" (CAACs), such as in Samos, Leros and Kos, or the "Reception and Identification Centres" (RICs), such as in Diavata, Malakasa or Fylakio, Evros, is already applied, or even where the so-called 'controlled' living model is promoted, such as in the various 'Controlled Facilities for Temporary Accommodation of Asylum Seekers' (particularly) in the mainland, extremely damaging conditions are created for the wellbeing of both the refugee children themselves and their families in general. These conditions create, first of all, anxiety for the psychosocial and learning development of the children we support and, secondly, discomfort, giving us the feeling that we are now working in an 'open prison' environment.” As further noted in their letter,969 this model of reception, which as stressed by the RECs inter alia amounts to applicants’ accommodation “in particularly remote areas and their enclosure by three-meter-high concrete walls […]; the creation of more and more internal, separate, clusters-cages for the different functions, which are shielded with double fencing and scaled wire mesh and guarded by private security companies; [and] the rapid understaffing of social and health services in terms of scientific staff, interpreters/translators, etc. and the parallel increase in security staff”, also inter alia: v Creates insurmountable practical obstacles in children’s and young persons’ access to formal education, due to the distance between their place of residence from urban centers were public schools operate, v Drastically limits possibilities to maintain communication with schoolmates and more broadly people of a similar age, given social integration activities that take place in the context of education become impossible, due to their isolation and the parallel inability of non-residents to access [the camps], v prevents refugee parents and guardians from communicating with their children's teachers and with the parents and guardians of children in the local communities, thus nullifying one of the fundamental functions of the educational community, 966 967 968 969 For instance, this was raised as a main concern by actors during the 16 May 2023 National Protection Working Group, which is organised and chaired by UNHCR, and currently co-chaired by GCR. As per information exchanged and further concerns raised during the same 16 May 2023 National Protection Working Group. The letter was inter alia published by EfSyn. See EfSyn, RECs: Educational integration of refugee children does not fit in closed centres, 11 May 2023, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/4mes767c. Ibid. 194