2. Reception and identification procedure 2.1 The European Union policy framework: ‘hotspots’ The “hotspot approach” was first introduced in 2015 by the European Commission in the European Agenda on Migration, as an initial response to the exceptional flows of refugee arrivals to the EU.152 Its adoption was part of the immediate action to assist Member States which were facing disproportionate migratory pressures at the EU’s external borders and was presented as a solidarity measure. The initial objective of the “hotspot approach” was to assist Italy and Greece by providing comprehensive and targeted operational support, so that the latter could fulfil their obligations under EU law and swiftly identify, register and fingerprint incoming migrants, channel asylum seekers into asylum procedures, implement the relocation scheme and conduct return operations.153 In order to achieve this goal, EU Agencies, namely the EUAA (previously EASO), Frontex, Europol and Eurojust, worked alongside the Greek authorities within the hotspots.154 The hotspot approach was also expected to contribute to the implementation of the temporary relocation scheme, proposed by the European Commission in September 2015.155 Therefore, hotspots were envisaged initially as reception and registration centres, where Greek authorities, with the support of EU Agencies would “swiftly identify, register and fingerprint incoming migrants”, following which “[t]hose claiming asylum [would] be immediately channelled into an asylum procedure”.156 Interestingly, at the time, nowhere was it specified or mandated that said “channelling” (or referral) was to be made within the premises of the initial arrival/reception facility (i.e., the RICs or “hotspots”). Instead, the initial Greek response to the “hotspot approach” seems to refer to ‘[a] headquarter Hotspot in Piraeus […] where asylum seekers [would have been] received from different arrival points’, which if implemented as such, could have perhaps led to the establishment of a more functional reception system.157 Five hotspots, under the legal form of First Reception Centres – later known as Reception and Identification Centres (RIC) – were established in Greece on the islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos. In 2021, on Samos, Leros and Kos, the RICs were converted into ‘Closed Controlled Access Centres of Islands (CCAC) and new EU facilities were established.158 The CCAC in Samos was inaugurated on 18 September 2021 and the ones in Leros and Kos on 27 November 2021.159 Since then the operation of the old RIC facilities in Samos and Leros was halted. On Kos, despite the inauguration of the new centre, new infrastructures remained non-operational until August 2022 and the facilities of the old RIC remained in use. 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 European Commission, European Agenda on Migration, COM(2015) 240, 13 May 2015, available at: https://bit.ly/3TrnbG3. Ibid. Ibid. European Commission, Council Decisions (EU) 2015/1523 of 14 September 2015, OJ 2015, L239/146 and 2015/1601 of 22 September 2015 establishing provisional measures in the area of international protection for the benefit of Italy and Greece, OJ 2015, L248/80, available at: https://bit.ly/43T44rt. European Commission, European Agenda on Migration, COM(2015) 240, op.cit. p. 6. European Commission: Migration and Home Affairs, The Hotspot approach to managing exceptional migratory flows, 11 September 2015, available at: https://tinyurl.com/2kxbbt9y; See also GCR, Limits of Indignation: the EU-Turkey Statement and its implementation in the Samos ‘hotspot’; 10 April 2019, available at: https://tinyurl.com/4h3szes5. Ministerial Decision 25.0 / 466733/15-12-2021, according to which the RIC of Samos, Leros and Kos are renamed as ‘Closed Controlled Access Centres of Islands (C.C.A.C.I.)’, See also Art. 8 par. 4 L.4375/2016, see also EU Commission, DG Migration and Home, Annual Activity Report 2020, https://tinyurl.com/4ctyva7w. MoMA, The Minister for Migration and Asylum, Mr. Notis Mitarachi, inaugurated the new closed controlled access centres in Samos, 18 September 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3DHQzOe; MoMA, N. Mitarachi: Today in Leros and Kos, as a few days ago in Samos and in a few months in Chios and Lesvos, we inaugurate the new Closed Controlled Access Centres, with a view to the future. Images we can all recall from the period 2015-2019 belong definitely to the past, 27 November 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3j61isb. 49