39 travel to his hometown for several days following approval by the facility’s management. What mattered most was that these permissions were arbitrary, and that violations of the overall prohibition was considered disorderly. Both the 99 B. Covid-19 Quarantine From mid-2020 through December 2022, asylum seekers arriving on the Eastern Aegean islands were subject to a Covid-19 quarantine upon arrival.102 Although there was no legal framework explicitly permitting quarantine for ECtHR and CJEU found that asylum asylum seekers prior to May 2022,103 the Greek seekers’ stay in the transit zone between government began placing asylum seekers in Hungary and Serbia was a deprivation of state-run quarantine centres in Mid-2020, liberty, although it was possible in shortly after the first case of Covid-19 was principle to leave the transit zone towards confirmed in Greece. Although quarantine was Serbia. no longer in use at the time this update was 100 To assess whether a measure constitutes detention, it is therefore not published, the use of it on Kos is important to solely decisive whether a person can leave document not only because of the human the respective facility for a certain period rights concerns it raised, but because of how it of time, provided that the reasons for doing so are limited and dependent on the fits into the broader context of migration and refugee policies at the EU’s external borders. consent of the authorities. If, on the other On Kos, quarantine was enforced by the police hand, the accommodation can be left under the authority of RIS. However, in general freely, the coercive element central to the classification of deprivation of liberty is lacking.101 ⎯ The measure is not always voluntary if the person lacks genuine choice: In details regarding the quarantine conditions were largely concealed from the public. The following information was gathered by Equal Rights through client interactions and 10 targeted interviews that were conducted separately from the interviews used for Section principle, a measure cannot be classified as II.C. Upon arrival, the National Public Health a deprivation of liberty if it is carried out Organization (EODY) historically administered with the consent of the person. However, it rapid antigen tests to asylum seekers. In most is not voluntary if the person lacks the cases, those with negative Covid-19 results had possibility to choose, or if their consent is their phones confiscated and were then placed associated with a waiver of indispensable in mass quarantine. During their quarantine rights. the authorities provided asylum seekers only with very generally information, such as the length of their quarantine period, leaving ECtHR, Judgment of 17/01/2012, No. 36760/06 – Stanev, para. 101 et seq., 124 et seq. 100 ECtHR, Judgment of 02/04/2021, No. 36037/17 – R.R. et al, para. 70 et seq. 101 ECtHR, Judgment of 28/05/2018, No. 22696/16 – J.R. et al, para. 85. 99 Asylum Information Database (AIDA), Country Report: Greece (May 2022), 45-46,48, available at: https://bit.ly/3HoBcNX. 103 JMD 23983/2022 the 1st of May 2022 JMD provided for a 5-day quarantine of asylum seekers and was the first Greek legal instrument to mention the quarantining of asylum seekers. 102 ‘Still detained and forgotten’ – Update on Detention Policies, Practices, and Conditions on Kos 2022/23