Introduction The implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement on March 20, 2016 (henceforth the “Statement”),1 coupled with the closure of the so-called “Balkan Route”, led to a drastic decrease of the unprecedented refugee flows experienced throughout 2015 in the Eastern Mediterranean. It also led to the entrapment of more than 50,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Greece, and especially on the five main island points of entry: Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos. Shortly afterwards, on April 3, 2016, the Greek Parliament adopted Law 4375/2016 (henceforth L.4375/2016), 2 introducing the “fast-track border procedure”, which though providing less safeguards for asylum seekers and applicable only under exceptional circumstances, has been since used with a view to the Statement’s implementation.3 In the same context, the “first country of asylum” and “safe third country” clauses, which formed part of previous legislation, were now used to implement the Statement, by making it possible to return (“readmission”) to Turkey not only newly arrived (at the islands) “irregular migrants,” but also asylum seekers and refugees whose asylum applications would thereafter be found “inadmissible”, as per a clause that had never before been previously enforced. Cumulatively, these events marked a new chapter in the Greek/European management of Migration, with one of its defining characteristics being the gradual (re)institutionalization of the overall management of Greek-bound mixed migration flows.4 In the meanwhile, and within this state-led re-appropriation of border management, the newly established island Reception and Identification Centers (RICs), as well as the land border RIC of Evros (RIC at Fylakio, Evros), became the frontline structures for the reception and accommodation of foreign nationals/non-nationals fleeing persecution and/or destitution. The project In this context, the current project was aimed at assessing how (and if) some aspects of the reception of third-country nationals/non-nationals at the Greek borders evolved since the Statement’s implementation in March 2016, and up to the research’s conclusion in April 2018. The point of reference for this was the recast European Directive on the reception of applicants for international protection (Reception Directive),5 which though belatedly transposed into Greek legislation on the 15th of May 2018, still provides/provided for the absolute minimum standards for the reception of third country nationals/non-nationals applying for asylum in Europe, and therefore in Greece as well. The primary analytical lens, however, was that of the experiences to which asylum seekers have been subjected throughout their initial reception at the Greek borders, in the context of their 3