with the termination of ESTIA –which severely disrupted applicants’ access to their rights while compounding barriers to integration992– and systematic application of the “safe third country” concept even to cases where the provisions of Article 38 Directive 2013/32/EU are not fulfilled in practice. The Reception and Identification Service (RIS), operating under the General Secretariat for the Reception of Asylum Applicants of the MoMA, is the responsible authority for the reception of asylum applicants, 993 including of unaccompanied minors. 994 Following the full handover of “ESTIA” to the MoMA in May 2021,995 the RIS has also been responsible for managing the accommodation programme, in collaboration with implementing partners,996 until the programme was terminated in December 2022. As far as GCR is aware, the RIS had stopped receiving new referrals for accommodation to ESTIA, even for highly vulnerable cases, several months before the programme’s termination. Following the entry into force of the Asylum Code and relevant amendments by L. 4960/2022, the Special Secretary for Unaccompanied Minors (SSUM) of the MoMA remained the competent authority for the protection of UAM, including for the referral and accompaniment of UAM to dedicated accommodation facilities for UAM and the implementation of Guardianship,997 until the transfer of its responsibilities (under Article 39 pf P.D. 106/2020) to the new General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection establishedwith Article 6(1) of P.D. 77/2023 (A' 130/ 27.6.2023). The capacity and occupancy of the reception system can be seen in the following table: Capacity and occupancy of the reception system: December 2024 Centre Capacity Occupancy Islands (for islands statistics see Reception and Identification) Lesvos CCAC 3,871 3,836 Samos CΑCC 3,664 4,126 Chios CCAC 1,014 1,020 Leros CΑCC 2,152 1,691 Kos CΑCC 3,455 1,506 998 Mainland (per region, as per MoMA publication) Mainland Greece Not available 2,588 Epirus Not available 1,731 Central Macedonia Not available 4,606 East Macedonia & Thrace Not available 1,305 Peloponnese Attica West Greece Thessaly Not available Not available Not available Not available 581 3,012 439 765 Grand total Total not available (14,156 reported for island CCACs) 27,206 Source: National Coordination Centre for border Control, , National Situational Picture regarding the Islands at Eastern Aegean Sea (31/12/2024), 2 January 2025, available at: 992 993 994 995 996 997 998 For more, see AIDA, Country Report Greece: 2022 Update, June 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/45vXAir, pp. 161-164. Article 1(ιστ) Αsylum Code. Article 64 (2) Asylum Code as amended. ECRE, Greece: Hearing Reveals Hostile Environment for Human Rights Defenders, Strategy of Deflection and Denials on Pushbacks Continue, ESTIA Cash Scheme Unravels as Government Takes Over, 15 October 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3LmNohy. MoMA, ESTIA Programme, see: https://bit.ly/439SeIj. Article 64 Asylum Code. MoMa did not publish data on capacity for mainland temporary accommodation sites for 2024. Nevertheless, data regarding nominal and actual capacity of all refugee camps referring to 30 Juin 2024 were provided by the Minister of Migration and Asylum as part of a parliamentary scrutiny. The relevant data and their detailed analysis by RSA are available here: RSA, Persisting severe reception deficiencies in understaffed camps Official 2024 statistics, 5 September 2024. 189