Similarly, and despite improvements, a small pond seemingly created by ongoing infrastructural problems pertinent to the RIC’s sewage system, still remained. Overall, as we were informed,119 the RIC’s level of cleanliness was an ongoing issue for residents –who frequently complained on the matter– as was the issue of material scarcity and especially with respect to winter clothing and sanitary products, such as pampers. Indeed, material scarcity was perhaps one of the few issues which had seen a deterioration in the RIC, without, nevertheless, this meaning that living conditions, as such, were adequate. “Conditions are not the best…you certainly don’t want to find yourself in their place…but still, it is better when compared to other islands”.120 RIC at Fylakio, Evros: nothing can beautify detention We visited the RIC at Fylakio, Evros, between the 20th and 22nd of December 2017. The situation at the RIC was clearly more in tune with the provisions asylum seekers are legally entitled to. The RIC was clean and quite with no observable tensions, no shouts, no tents and no overflowing garbage dumps “decorating” applicants’ temporal residencies. As is by now the case with all such facilities we visited, so too at the RIC at Fylakio, Evros, meals were regularly provided (thrice daily). Importantly, however, applicants’ customs and cultural celebrations were also taken into consideration when designing the “menu” (in principle, the RIC Director would, either voluntarily or following requests from applicants make the relevant request to the company responsible for catering the facility). This interpersonal respect, in turn, was clearly evident in the seemingly cordial relations manifest between the RIS and police personnel –the RIC is overseen by officers on a 24/hour basis– and applicants themselves. Educational and recreational activities were provided in the RIC, albeit –as is the case with all RICs– these where provided through NGOs (METAdrasi) and volunteer-led initiatives from the surrounding area, with the RIC’s minor inhabitants(/detainees) having no access to official education. The RIC was overpopulated, but nowhere near the levels observed on the islands. During our visit, its 240-places capacity was exceeded by approximately 60 applicants, with all applicants, nevertheless, being accommodated in autonomously heated containers, each with showers and toilets of its own, and divided alongside the RIC’s four different wings. Thus, overpopulation, in itself, did not represent a significant problem. What did, on the other hand, was the scarcity of proper clothing (mostly shoes). That being said, at the time of our visit, more than a third of the RIC’s population (112 out of slightly more than 300) was composed of unaccompanied minors (UAM). Despite the freezing, windy weather of those days, some of them (10-12), would remain hanging by the fences encompassing each of the RIC’s “accommodation” wings, so as to ask the RIS employee, who guided as throughout the RIC, for shoes that could fit 36