In line with said Decisions in force during 2019 and since 1 January 2020, the geographical restriction on each asylum seeker who enters the Greek territory through the Eastern Aegean Islands is imposed automatically when the asylum application is lodged before the RAO of Lesvos, Rhodes, Samos, Leros and Chios and the AAU of Kos. The applicant receives an asylum seeker’s card with a stamp on the card mentioning: “Restriction of movement on the island of […]”. In case the applicant holds the new type of “smart card”, a separate category stating whether they are subject to the geographical restriction is included on the card (e.g., stating “Άνευ” if no restriction is applied). No individual decision is issued for each asylum seeker. The lawfulness of the aforementioned practice is questionable, for the following reasons: v No prior individual decision for the imposition of the geographical restriction is issued, as the restriction is imposed on the basis of a regulatory (‘κανονιστική’) Decision of the Minister and no proper justification on an individual basis is provided for the imposition of the restriction of movement on each island, within the frame of the asylum procedure.913 According to the relevant Decisions, any asylum seeker who enters the Greek territory from Lesvos, Rhodes, Samos, Leros, Chios and Kos is initially subject to a geographical restriction on said island. The restriction can be lifted only if the applicant falls within one of the categories provided by the Ministerial Decision. Consequently, the geographical restriction in the asylum procedure is applied indiscriminately, en masse and without any prior individual assessment. The impact of the geographical restriction on applicants’ “subsistence and… their physical and mental health”,914 on the ability of applicants to fully exercise their rights and to receive reception conditions, by taking into consideration reception conditions prevailing on the islands is not assessed. v No time limit or any re-examination at regular intervals is provided for the geographical restriction imposed; v No effective legal remedy is provided in order to challenge the geographical restriction imposed by the Minister of Citizen Protection, contrary to Article 26 of the recast Reception Conditions Directive. The remedy provided under article 118(1) (formerly introduced by the amended Article 24 L 4540/2018 in December 2018) remains illusory, since an individual cannot lodge an appeal pursuant to the Code of Administrative Procedure in the absence of an individual, enforceable administrative act. In addition, no tailored legal aid scheme is provided for challenging such decisions (see Regular Procedure: Legal Assistance). A fortiori, no legal remedy to challenge said restriction is provided by the new Asylum Code that replaced the IPA. During 2021 and in line with the legal framework in place at that time, the geographical restriction was inter alia lifted in the following cases: v Persons granted international protection; v Applicants exempted due to the applicability of the family provisions of the Dublin Regulation; v Vulnerable applicants for whom appropriate support could not be provided within the area of restriction, though GCR is aware of several cases of vulnerable applicants for whom the restriction was not lifted, even though neither special reception conditions nor special procedural guarantees could be provided, not least, due to diverging practices between locations (also see Lift of geographical Restriction). As has been the case since 2021, data on the number of persons who had their geographical restriction lifted in 2023 has not been provided, even though it was requested by GCR. Instead, the MoMA’s reply to GCR’s January 2024 request for information makes reference to the availability of relevant “summary and detailed statistical data on the work of the First Reception Service, the Asylum Service and the Appeals Authority” on the MoMA’s website (https://migration.gov.gr/statistika/).915 Yet, as is the case with 913 914 915 Article 7 recast Reception Conditions Directive. Article 17(2) recast Reception Conditions Directive. MoMA, Analysis and Studies Office, Reply to GCR’s request for information for the preparation of the updated Annual Report on Greece for 2023 in the framework of the Asylum Information Database (AIDA) project, received on 14 February 2024 (protocol number: 55259). 185