3 Executive Summary This report documents the quarantine practice on the Eastern Aegean Island of Chios. Chios hosts one of five Greek “EU Hotspots” on the Eastern Aegean Islands and is one of the areas where people on the move enter EU soil with the intention to apply for asylum. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, asylum seekers arriving to the Greek islands in search of safety from violence, persecution, and humanitarian emergencies have been automatically placed in state-run quarantine centres where they remain for approximately 5-20 days. Little to no information was provided to asylum seekers about why or for how long they were to be kept in fenced-off quarters, or that after the quarantine they would be allowed to officially seek asylum. Quarantine facilities have been unprepared and unsanitary, lacking adequate heating, healthcare, and basic core-relief items such as mattresses, hygiene products, and nutritional food. Moreover, authorities have violated a wide array of human rights through their enforcement of the mandatory quarantine–confiscating asylum seekers phones, handcuffing asylum seekers on their way to the quarantine, and according to two interviewees even conducting strip searches upon entrance. There is little public information available about the quarantine facilities for asylum seekers in Greece. The following report is the first comprehensive study documenting the quarantine of asylum seekers on the East Aegean islands Although the report focuses on the period of July 2021-June 2022, at the time this report was published quarantine was still in use on Chios. In addition to offering a description of the facts as they relate to Chios, the report elaborates on these practices within the context of Greek, EU, and international law, and implores Greek authorities to implement all necessary public health measures in a manner that respects and protects the rights of asylum seekers. Section I provides context for this report by detailing the general situation in Greece. It starts with a general introduction on the situation and policies related to migration in Greece by illustrating the increasingly restrictive policies and the efforts taken with regard to externalization. It further provides on overview of the so-called “Hotspot approach” and the situation on Chios, where one of the five Greek “Hotspots” on the East Aegean Islands is placed. Section II introduces the general measures and strategies taken to restrain the outbreak of the COVID19 Pandemic in Greece. In a second part, section II juxtaposes these measures against those implemented towards asylum seeker by illustrating the situation on Chios Island, providing context to the measures and practices related to COVID-19 addressing asylum seeker on Chios. Further, the report provides on overview of the quarantine practise on Chios by looking at the authorities responsible for the conduction and the different procedures applied to it. It ends with an introduction into the conditions during quarantine in the site of Lefkonia and highlights the overall carceral environment. Section III establishes that people in quarantine on Chios are de jure and de facto “asylum seeker” and therefore the rights and procedures foreseen by the Common European Asylum System apply. Section IV introduces the legal grounds for quarantine. It illustrates that quarantine per such can be considered lawful by highlighting, that quarantine on Chios constitutes an unlawful detention. Further, it introduces the legal framework for detention by providing on overview of Greek, EU, and international law, showing that the state has a special obligation to protect people who are wholly dependent on it. Section III explains that under both Greek and EU law, the authorities can only detain asylum seekers exceptionally, and as long as there is no alternative, less coercive measure. However, as this section shows, the authorities on Chios have automatically detained all asylum seekers upon arrival, regardless ‘Quarantine of Asylum Seeker’ – A legal classification of the quarantine practice on Chios