Dodecanese, the Head of Security, the District Officer, the representative for Citizen Protection
of the Municipality of Kos, the Harbourmaster of Kos, as well as the Associate Director of the
“Hot Spot”, under construction during the time of our visit, in the Reception and Identification
Office. Furthermore, meetings and communication took place with representatives from local
organizations active in the area, and specifically representatives from UNHCR, ARSIS, Doctors
Without Borders, Praksis and the solidarity network “Kos Solidarity”.
2. Findings
2.1 Procedures Upon Arrival
The arrivals that are noted in the island of Kos have decreased dramatically and, in fact, a
relatively higher decline is observed in Kos in relation to the rest of the islands that throughout
2015 and the first months of 2016 served as basic entry points to Europe. The EU-Turkey
Agreement certainly constitutes the reason for this decline, since from the date it was put into
force, all new arrivals have limited freedom, with the knowledge that once procedures finish,
they will be readmitted into Turkey. Anyone who does not express a desire to file a request for
asylum to the Greek authorities is immediately returned to Turkey, while those who do wish to
file a request remain in the country until their application is evaluated after establishing whether
Greece should handle the application or whether Turkey is a safe third country for the applicant.
The now reduced arrivals are detected by the Coast Guard and by Frontex forces during regular
patrols that take place. According to a statement by the Harbourmaster, when arrivals are
detected on Turkish territorial waters, they immediately notify the Turkish Coast Guard, who
since the Agreement came into force, collaborates with the Greek Coast Guard and collects those
trying to enter. When new arrivals are detected on Greek territorial waters, during the time of our
mission, the protocol was a rescue operation after arrest, and to subsequently lead newcomers to
the yard of Port Authority, where they would stay until noon, since that is when registration
procedures take place. Up until 20/3, the UNHCR handled the transfer of new arrivals from the
entry point to the registration area that operates on the port. However, the UNHCR has
discontinued this specific procedure, in the context of its ceasing specific operations on Greek
islands due to its opposition to the EU-Turkey Agreement.
The Police, Frontex and the Coast Guard all participated in registration procedures, while
Turkish observers were also present. The basic identification information was received directly
by the Coast Guard with the purpose of immediately dispatching the file to the Prosecution and
Appeals Office in Rhodes, which in turn proceeded to abstain from prosecution for the offense of
illegal entry. Then the police, in collaboration with Frontex and its interpreters continued to draw
up complete documentation, collect fingerprints, take photos, and in general create a map of each
of the new arrivals. From a nationality point of view, the vast majority new arrivals in Kos are
Pakistani and Bangladeshi citizens, while few are Syrians and none are Iraqi. The process of
identifying vulnerable cases was, at the time of our visit and given the previous absence of
Reception and Identification Services on the island, taken on by the authorities and mainly by the
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