RIS: The RIS previously outsourced medical and psychosocial care provision to NGOs until mid-2017. Since then, the provision of said services have been undertaken by the Ministry of Health, throughout different entities under its supervision. At the end of 2019, the National Organisation for Public Health (Εθνικός Οργανισμός Δημόσιας Υγείας, ΕΟΔΥ, also EODY), a private entity supervised and funded directly by the Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity,250 was the competent body for the provision of medical and psychosocial services. Serious shortcomings were however noted in 2023 due to the insufficient number of medical staff in the RIC (see also Identification) resulting in serious shortcomings regarding the assessment of asylum seekers’ vulnerabilities. Security personnel in CCACs: The surplus private security personnel guarding each accommodation and other sections of the CCAC is not assisted by interpreters. The lack of interpretation services leads to the endogenous inability of the CCAS’s residents to communicate their needs; especially considering that the latter cannot access services or exit their containers if they do not carry with them their asylum seeker’s ID cards. In the aftermath of the fires which destroyed the Moria facility on the Greek island of Lesvos, the Task Force was set up within the European Commission’s Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME). The mission of the Task Force is the coordination of the Union’s work on all strategic, operational, legal and financial issues linked to migration management. The Task Force works in a matrix approach, tapping into established resources in DG HOME’s relevant units (policy, operational, financial) and cooperates closely with all other Commission services and EU agencies involved. Its work covers a wide range of coordination and support activities for Member States both in the Eastern and Southern external borders. The Task Force has a coordinating and supporting function and does not change or replace the prime responsibility of the national authorities in migration management on their territory.251 However, issues arise as its actual role remains unclear. Moreover, its contribution to the fulfillment of the objectives for which it was created is doubted.252 2.2.2 Reception and identification procedures in Evros Individuals entering Greece through the Greek-Turkish land border in Evros are not subject to the EUTürkiye statement. Therefore, they are not subjected to the fast-track border procedure and there is no geographical restriction imposed on them while their asylum application remains pending. However, they are subjected to reception and identification procedures at the Reception and Identification Centre (RIC) in Fylakio, Orestiada, which was inaugurated in 2013 and is since operating as a closed facility. People transferred to the RIC in Fylakio are also subjected to a “restriction of freedom of movement” applied as a de facto detention measure, meaning that, according to the Law they remain restricted within the premises of the RIC for a period of 5 days that can be extended for up to an additional 20 days. However, according to GCR observation, in few cases, de facto detention in the RIC exceeded 25 days, mostly due to delays in transfers in second line reception facilities, which have reached their capacity.253 Depending on the number of arrivals, new arrivals, including families and minors, once detected and apprehended by the authorities, may first be transferred to a border guard police station or the PreRemoval Detention Centre (PRDC) in Fylakio, where they remain in detention (so called ‘pre-RIC detention’) pending their transfer to the RIC Fylakio. ‘Pre-RIC detention’ has occurred in instances where new arrivals surpassed the accommodation capacity of the RIC Fylakio. Their detention “up to the time that [the person] will be transferred to Evros (Fylakio) RIC in order to be subject to reception and identification procedures”, as justified in the relevant detention decisions, has no legal basis in national law (see Grounds for Detention). By the end of 2023, the period of pre-RIC detention was limited to a few days as far as GCR is aware. 250 251 252 253 Established by L 4633/2019. EU Commission, Task Force Migration Management, available at: https://tinyurl.com/4hyxbes9. RSA, What is happening today in the refugee structures on the Aegean islands, available at https://tinyurl.com/bdpc6byj GCR, Reception of asylum seekers in Greece: the demand for humane conditions remains, 9 November 2023, https://tinyurl.com/5d789w58. 63