47
ECtHR has held that the placement in a
psychiatric facility amounted to a deprivation
of liberty, although the person had the right to
leave the facility, even for several months. The
Court found that the consequences of not
returning, and the subsequent psychological
compulsion would be enough to qualify the
measure to deprive the liberty.136
Like the Röszke Transit Zone, the CCAC is a
highly carceral facility with private security
and armed police inside. However, the facts of
the Röszke Transit Zone and Kos CCAC differ in
important respects, particularly because
asylum seekers in the CCAC can leave and
move freely around Kos during the daytime
hours.137 Although on paper the only penalty
for failing to return in the evening is the loss of
accommodation, in practice exclusion from the
CCAC could lead to barriers to accessing the
asylum procedure because of how difficult it is
for non-residents to enter the facility. For now,
it not only remains to be seen how courts will
treat the CCACs, but to what extent the
practices inside them will become more
restrictive in the future.
136
ECtHR, Judgment of 23/03/2016, No. 47152/06 –
Blokhin, para. 164 et seq.
137
However, they cannot leave Kos because asylum
seekers subject to the EU-Turkey statement are
issued a geographical restriction, ordering them
not to leave the respective island until the end of
the asylum procedure: MD 1140/2019, Gov.
Gazette B’ 4736/20.12.2019.
‘Still detained and forgotten’ – Update on Detention Policies, Practices, and Conditions on Kos 2022/23