Like EU law, Law 4375/2016 – the old Greek asylum law – provided for the detention of asylum seekers only as an exception and only for very limited reasons. More specifically, Law 4375/2016 only allowed the authorities to detain asylum seekers if they were already in detention when they applied for asylum. However, among other things, the IPA dramatically reshaped the detention practices in Greece and significantly expanded the grounds for detaining asylum seekers. Article 41 (c) of the IPA defines detention similar to the RCD as “the restriction on a specific area imposed by a state authority on an applicant, thus depriving the person of freedom of movement”79. However, although Article 46 (2) still only allows the authorities to detain asylum seekers “by way of exception” it removes the condition from Law 4375/2016 that they can only detain asylum seekers who applied for asylum from detention. Further, the IPA also expanded the grounds under which the authorities may detain asylum seekers to include: • Ascertaining his or her identity or nationality or citizenship; • Identifying the elements of his or her application for international protection that would otherwise be impossible to obtain, in particular because there is a risk of the applicant absconding; • When there are good reasons to consider that the applicant is applying for international protection in order to merely delay or prevent the execution of a return decision; • If the applicant constitutes a significant risk to national security or public policy; • In order to decide whether the applicant has a right to enter the territory; • Where there is a significant risk of escape.80 Further, the IPA also extended the maximum time the authorities can detain asylum seekers to 18 months.81 As the most recent AIDA report on Greece notes, “[t]he possibility to extend the period of detention of asylum seekers up to 18 months, raises serious concerns as of its compliance with the obligation as a rule to impose asylum detention ‘only for as short a period as possible’ and to effectuate asylum procedures with ‘due diligence’ in virtue of Article 9 Directive 2013/33/EU”82. Finally, an amendment to the 2019 law, Law 4686/2020 also further expanded the detention practice and, as noted by UNHCR, turned detention “essentially . . . into the rule”83. More specifically, Law 4686/2020 accelerates the procedure for asylum seekers in detention, establishes the possibility that the police may communicate first-instance asylum decisions to asylum seekers, foresees that the right to remain in the country ends when a second instance decision is issued as opposed to notified, and provides that in the case an appeal is rejected the applicant is detained until his or her removal is completed.84 The latter point, which provides for the automatic detention of rejected asylum seekers, in particular does not comply with EU law. c. European Human Rights Law: Article 5 § 1 (f) ECHR, first and second limb The detention of asylum seekers is governed by the first limb of Article 5 § 1 (f) ECHR stating that a person 79 80 81 82 83 Art. 41(c) L. 4636/2019. Ibid. (Art. 46(2) L. 4636/2019). Art. 46(5) L. 4636/2019. AIDA, Country Report: Greece (June 2021), 195-196, available at: https://bit.ly/3mMob7c. UNHCR, UNHCR’s Intervention at the hearing for actors to the Standing Committee of Public Administration, Public Order and Justice of the Hellenic Parliament regarding the Draft Law on the Improvement of Migration Legislation (9 May 2020), available at: https://bit. ly/3uv0Oj7. 84 AIDA, Country Report: Greece (June 2021), 197, available at: https://bit.ly/3mMob7c. 10 DETENTION OF MIGRANTS ON THE ISLAND OF KOS