17 Notably, there are no longer single women or the PRDC are inadequate to host any person, families with minor children detained in the however they are particularly inappropriate for PRDC. Moreover, the police now do not categorically vulnerable people, who often knowingly detained people officially recognized require ongoing medical and psychosocial care. as vulnerable. However, vulnerable people The police acknowledge this, at least implicitly, continue to be detained on Kos because the by releasing vulnerable people as soon as they police are unaware of their status. Between the become aware of their status. However, the period of January and December 2022, Equal fact that vulnerable people are detained in the Rights represented four cases where people first place violates the authorities’ legal who were officially recognized by RIS as obligations, exposes people to further harm vulnerable were detained. The four cases and trauma, and denies them the special included survivors of torture and gender-based guarantees that the law provides them.34 violence and people with serious mental Under EU and Greek law, the police are illnesses. In each case, the police were unaware obligated to account for vulnerabilities before that the person had been recognized as detaining people by conducting an vulnerable and did not have a copy of their individualised assessment to determine vulnerability assessment from RIS on file. In all whether detention is both necessary and four cases the police immediately released the proportional.35 However, as previously person after Equal Rights submitted an reported, the police on Kos do not conduct intervention alongside a copy of their individualised assessments, and instead issue vulnerability assessment. In ¾ cases the nearly identical detention orders that do not person was never given a copy of their account for an individual’s specific needs or vulnerability assessment by RIS, and Equal circumstances. Equal Rights has also Rights had to take the added step of requesting confirmed with the police that they do not the file from RIS before submitting it to the review a person’s RIS file—which contains the police, delaying their release by weeks in some vulnerability assessment—before detaining cases. Additionally, Equal Rights intervened in them. Given the generally poor conditions and another three cases where person was either complete lack of medical care in the PRDC, it is recognized as vulnerable after being released generally unlawful to detain vulnerable people or released based on medical conditions. on Kos, especially due to the lack of forced As described in Section III, the conditions in returns. Therefore, the police’s failure to 33 Detained and Forgotten, supra note 3, at 18-19 Art. 16(3) of the Return Directive states that “particular attention shall be paid to the situation of vulnerable persons. Emergency health care and essential treatment of illness shall be provided.” For further analysis see Detained and Forgotten, supra note 3, at 16-17. 35 This is true regardless of whether the person is detained as an asylum seeker under the Asylum Code or as a rejected asylum seeker subject to a return procedure. See Art. 8(2) Directive 2013/33/EU; Art. 50(2) L. 4939/2022; Art. 15(1) 33 34 conduct an individualised assessment directly Directive 2008/115/EC; Art. 30(1) L. 3907. Arguably Art. 30 L. 3907/2011, as amended by Art. 51 L. 4686/2020, does not explicitly call for an individualized assessment and instead imposes detention automatically on rejected asylum seekers. To the extent that it does establish an automatic detention scheme, Art. 30 L. 3907/2011 improperly transposes EU law. However, even the amended version of Art. 30 requires the authorities to assess whether the individual meets certain criteria and, if so, impose less burdensome alternative measures. ‘Still detained and forgotten’ – Update on Detention Policies, Practices, and Conditions on Kos 2022/23