ΑΛΛΗΛΕΓΓΥΗ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΕ: ΕΞΕΛΙΞΕΙΣ ΣΤΟ ΠΕΔΙΟ ΤΗΣ ΠΡΟΣΦΥΓΙΚΗΣ ΠΡΟΣΤΑΣΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΡΟΚΛΗΣΕΙΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΕ ΚΑΙ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ

158 The ‘hotspot’ approach: key findings from Greece Kos and Samos to Turkey, the majority of whom were Pakistanis (593), followed by Syrians (216) Algerians (163) and Afghans (77) 23 . The decline in attempts to cross the Aegean and in deaths at sea, has confirmed [the EU-Turkey Agreement’s] core rationale. Most EU communications on the EU- Turkey deal boast about having achieved the main objective and the only concrete result intended by the deal, namely a “ substantial fall in the number of cross- ings since the activation of the Statement ”. 8 Politicians have also highlighted a “ substantial fall in the loss of life ”. 9 However, such statements about the deal’s alleged success fail to address what happens to those people who continue to have reason to flee for their lives. Therefore, the Statement’s focus on returns has changed the organizational logic of asylum application for all 37,000 people who arrived on the Greek islands since April 2016. 24 While before the Statement, the people seeking asylum in Greece, were free to travel to the mainland to lodge their asylum claims there, after the deal’s implementation, the asylum seekers are obliged to apply for asylum in sep- arate “border procedures” in so – called hotspots, living in inadequate and dan- gerous conditions because of the geographical restriction. 25 People are only al- lowed to travel to the mainland to access standard asylum procedures if they are recognized as being vulnerable. A cornerstone of the EU-Turkey deal is that asylum seekers arriving on the Greek islands must remain in the “hotspots” where they are living in limbo, until they get registered and go through the “admissibility procedure” (if eligible for family reunification, relocation, asylum in Greece or if perceived as vulnerable), or until their return to Turkey (if deemed inadmissible or ineligible for asylum). The logic of treating people as if they were commodities is proving untenable, as thousands of people have been mentally crushed and physically harmed from being forced to remain for up to a year in unacceptable conditions on overcrowded islands. 26 23. UNHCR, 06/10/2017, Returns from Greece to Turkey, retrieved from: https://data2. unhcr.org/en/documents/download/60306. 24. Amnesty International, 14 July 2017, Greece: Lives on Hold. Update on Situation of RefugeesandMigrantsontheGreekIslandsPublicStatement.AlIndex:EUR25/6745/2017, retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur25/6745/2017/en/. 25. IRC, NRC, Oxfam, ‘The reality of the EU - TURKEY statement: How Greece has become a testing ground for policies that erode protection for refugees’, March 2017, https:// www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bn-eu-turkey-statement-migration- 170317-en.pdf. 26. One year on from the EU – Turkey Deal: Challenging the EU’ S alternative facts, Medecins Sans Frontieres, March 2017, http://www.msf.org/sites/msf.org/files/one_year_on_ from_the_eu-turkey_deal.pdf.