Diavata facilities there will soon be a related announcement by the Registration Authority (RIS).”31 At the time of writing, however, no information has been disclosed by the government – including to the Committee – on arrangements to ensure access to the asylum procedure on the mainland, including for vulnerable persons. The absence of channels to access asylum procedures in mainland Greece, in conjunction with the persisting practice of systematic informal forced returns, amounts to a serious breach of the right to asylum and of the prohibition of refoulement. Blanket deprivation of liberty during reception and identification procedures 18. The regime of “restriction on freedom of movement” under Article 40(a) of the Asylum Code, cited in para 8 of the Updated Action Plan relating to persons undergoing reception and identification procedures in the RIC or CCAC, amounts to de facto deprivation of liberty insofar as it entails a prohibition on leaving the premises of the facility. It is applied automatically and indiscriminately to all persons channelled into reception and identification procedures, subject to no necessity and proportionality test or to an assessment of alternatives to detention. The regime is thereby contrary to Article 5(1) of the Convention and corollary provisions of EU law, namely the Reception Conditions Directive. 19. It is for those reasons that the European Commission initiated infringement proceedings against Greece in January 2023 for incorrectly transposing the Reception Conditions Directive.32 Greece has taken no steps to bring the above legislation and practice in line with the right to liberty.33 20. Whereas Article 40(a) of the Asylum Code foresees a maximum 25-day duration of “restriction” within the premises of the RIC, the actual duration of deprivation of liberty varies, as the speed of reception and identification procedures depends on the number of arrivals and registration capacity. For instance, reception and identification procedures on the island of Kos currently take several days to weeks inter alia due to the absence of a permanent doctor in the CCAC.34 As for the mainland, several cases such as survivors of shipwrecks have been held in the RIC of Malakasa for periods exceeding 25 days.35 Living conditions in the RIC and CCAC are described further below. Blanket fee for second subsequent applications 21. In September 2021, Greece enacted rules under which the “making” of second or further subsequent applications is only permitted upon payment of a 100 € fee per person.36 The fee has been applied without exception since the entry into force of the rules, affecting 1,187 asylum applications in the course of 2022 – each application may 31 32 33 34 35 36 Asylum Service, Πρόσβαση σε συνθήκες υποδοχής και αναβάθμισης του συστήματος Αλκυόνη – προβλήματα, 344706/2023, 6 July 2023. INFR(2022)2156. See European Commission, ‘January Infringements package: key decisions’, INF/23/142, 26 January 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3RdzL8n. On the contrary, it has signalled its intention to maintain the rules in their current form: Ministry of Migration and Asylum, Reply to parliamentary question, 156113/2023, 16 March 2023, available at: https://shorturl.at/IKQXY. European Commission, Email: Visit to Kos and Leros, Ares(2023)3795420, 13 January 2023; RSA & HIAS, The role of the European Commission in the implementation of the EU asylum acquis on the Greek islands, February 2023, para 48, available at: https://shorturl.at/CFPY5. RSA, Registration of asylum applications in the new mainland RIC in Greece, February 2023, 10. Article 94(10) Asylum Code, as inserted by Article 23 L 4825/2021, Gov. Gazette A’ 157/04.09.2021; JMD 472687/2021, Gov. Gazette B’ 6246/27.12.2021. 9 RSA COMMENTS│ 2023