Yet two years on is a long time for this ongoing policy of dehumanization to keep drawing its legitimacy by reference to a “Crisis”,179 as the very meaning of the word suggests a temporariness and exceptionality which has by now been far exceeded. Instead, this is for all means and purposes an increasingly consolidated phenomenon, whose primary effect is “the creation of a pool of humans…left with no alternatives”;180 no alternatives for either regaining their lives or even a minimum standard of safety and sense of normality. Indeed, though (first reception) conditions differ between the regions examined in this report, with each displaying specificities and shortcomings of its own (e.g. more/less use of detention), they all converge in that they not only fail to provide adequate protection to de facto vulnerable individuals and groups, but also end up further victimizing them with a similar degree of banality. It is not that the situation has remained fixed during past years or that some ad hoc solutions have not been sought or at least attempted. It is rather that, at its core, the very nature of the EU/Greek response to the Refugee Issue is one that a priori excludes any possibility of providing humane reception and living conditions to those arriving at the Greek borders. Simply put, there is an intrinsic incompatibility between the primacy placed on a policy/Statement (the response) whose declared purpose is to “end the irregular migration from Turkey to the EU”,181 and any and all attempts at respecting asylum seekers’ –themselves, “irregular” newcomers– rights. A case that becomes all the more evident considering the means by which this policy has been pursued on the European side of the borders: that is, through the entrapment of newcomers in secluded, prison-type facilities, so as to both expedite/facilitate their deportation in a country (Turkey) with a worrying human rights record,182 and have their dehumanization serve as a warning to anyone else even remotely considering Europe as a friendly destination. “If you want to learn what fear, hunger and cold is, [just] come here”.183 It is indicative that in the years following the Statement’s implementation and the concomitant containment of newcomers on the islands, the situation has been steamrolling on a self-perpetuating downward spiral, whose inevitable instances of critical deterioration are followed by sporadic, last-minute attempts at bringing the situation to “manageable”, yet never humane, levels. Between mid-October and the 22nd of December 2017, for instance, a state initiative was undertaken with the aim of improving conditions in the highly overcrowded and unsuitable island RICs, in what was arguably a last-minute attempt at preventing the further loss of life during yet another winter (as was the case in 2016). Though results were significant, in that some 6,000 asylum seekers were rapidly transferred to mainland Greece,184 at its core the action was characterized by a crisis-management approach, rather than one aimed at creating long-term sustainability either on the islands or with respect to the Refugee Issue as a whole –something that could have feasibly been pursued through shifting the reception locus from the islands to the mainland and increasing the latter’s capacity to accommodate asylum seekers in decent conditions for the duration of their stay. 53