23 IV. Legal Issues 1. Introduction the disease.” 50 . Law 4682/2020 was subsequently implemented through a series of JMDs titled Extraordinary measures to protect public health from the risk of further spread of the corona- In principle, there are possible legal grounds for virus COVID-19. quarantining asylum seekers after they first ar- Even so, neither the February 25th Legislative rive in Greece, particularly given the highly con- Act, Law 4682/2020, nor the following JMDs es- tagious nature of COVID-19 (cf. Section X). tablished a specific quarantine for all asylum However, there is no clear legal basis for quar- seekers upon arrival, such as occurred in antine, at least in its current form. In fact, the Lefkonia. In fact, it was not until more than two first mention of quarantine for asylum seekers years after the first COVID-19 case was con- didn’t appear in domestic law until May 2022, firmed in Greece that the Greek authorities fi- more than two years after the first case of nally addressed quarantine for asylum seekers COVID-19 was confirmed in Greece, and, even in law: the 1st of May 2022 JMD regarding Ex- then, the authorities have still never issued in- traordinary measures to protect public health from dividual quarantine orders. the risk of further spread of the coronavirus COVID- On February 25 (Government Gazette A42/25- 19 provided for a 5-day quarantine of asylum 2-2020), 2020, shortly after the first case of seekers. 51 However, under Greek law the JMD COVID-19 was confirmed in Greece, the Greek alone does not suffice to impose the quarantine; Government published a legislative act to ad- there must be (1) a JMD which provides a legal dress the spread of COVID-19. The legislative act, framework and articulates a public health need which was codified by Law 4682/2020, imple- for confinement (quarantine), 52 (2) a formal mented a series of restrictive measures aimed at policy articulated by the Ministers of Citizen curbing the virus. Among other things, Art. 1(e) Protection, Health and Immigration and Asy- called for, the “temporary confinement of per- lum,53 and (3) an individual administrative or- sons” when there are either “reasonable der issued against those detained. grounds for suspecting that they may directly or Rights first began questioning the Greek au- indirectly transmit the disease” or are “coming thorities about the legal basis for placing asy- from areas where there is a high prevalence of lum seekers in a mandatory quarantine upon 54 Equal Art. 1(2)(e) Law 4682/2020. JMD Δ1α/ΓΠ.οϊκ.23983 /2022, Extraordinary measures to protect public health from the risk of further spread of the coronavirus COVID-19, 1 May 2022, Art. 1 para 6 refers to Annex II which states “(9): Especially newly arrived third-country nationals or stateless persons upon arrival at the centres and facilities hereunder shall be subject either to a self-test or to a rapid test for the detection of COVID-19 coronavirus antigen. If the result of the self-test/rapid test is negative, they shall be placed in quarantine for a period of five (5) days. […]”, available at: https://bit.ly/3YNpoe3. 52 Art. 68 Para 5 Legislative Act of 20.3.2020, Urgent measures to address the consequences of the risk of spreading the COVID-19 coronavirus, to support society and entrepreneurship and to ensure the proper functioning of the market and public administration, available at: https://www.e-forosimv.gr/docs/fek_a_68_2020.pdf; See Ombudsman intervention to Chios RIS regarding quarantine. 53 Art. 1(2), (4) Legislative Act of 25.2.2020, Urgent measures to prevent and limit the spread of coronavirus, available at: https://www.e-nomothesia.gr/kat-ygeia/astheneies/praxe-nomothetikou-periekhomenou-tes-25-2-2020.html. 54 Ibid. Note that the Director of the Chios RIC stated in a letter to our Chios office that the quarantine does not constitute an administrative detention and therefore, no relevant individual administrative act is issued.–. 50 51 ‘Quarantine of Asylum Seeker’ – A legal classification of the quarantine practice on Chios