mandatory death sentences. The main death row facility for men remained overcrowded and inmates continued to be denied access to activities such as sport and education. Proposals made by the Constitutional Review Implementation Committee to abolish the death penalty continued to be stalled as a result of delays in the constitutional review process. GREECE Hellenic Republic Head of state: Prokopis Pavlopoulos Head of government: Alexis Tsipras Greece faced considerable challenges in providing adequate reception conditions and access to asylum procedures for refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants following the announcement of the EUTurkey migration deal. There was evidence that at least eight Syrian refugees were forcibly returned to Turkey. The closure of the Balkans route left thousands of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants stranded in mainland Greece in poor conditions. Allegations of torture and other ill-treatment by members of the security forces during arrest and/or detention continued. In December, new legislation established a national police complaints mechanism. BACKGROUND Parliament adopted further austerity measures including tax rises, pension cuts and the transfer of state assets to a privatization fund. In February, the UN Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt concluded that austerity measures implemented since 2010 contributed significantly to the widespread erosion of social and economic rights and pervasive poverty in Greece. REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS By the end of the year, 173,450 refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants had arrived by 170 sea in Greece. More than 434 people died or were reported missing while trying to cross the Aegean Sea. There were around 47,400 refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants on the mainland and 15,384 on the islands. The EU-Turkey migration deal On 18 March 2016, the EU and Turkey agreed to a far-reaching migration control deal under which Turkey agreed to take back all “irregular migrants” arriving on the Greek islands after 20 March, in exchange for €6 billion of targeted assistance. While people were formally guaranteed access to an asylum determination process, the deal allowed for those arriving on the Greek islands via Turkey to be returned to Turkey without a substantive examination of their claims. This was based on the premise that Turkey was a “safe third country”. Research during the year established that Turkey was not a safe country for asylum-seekers and refugees. The numbers arriving dropped sharply after 20 March, and by the end of the year, an average of 50 people were arriving daily. Between May and June, dozens of asylum applications lodged by refugees from Syria which were refused on “safe third country” grounds, were upheld on appeal. In June, Parliament adopted an amendment that changed the composition of the Asylum Appeals Committees (Appeals Committees) panel to include two judges and a person nominated by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, or the National Commission of Human Rights. During the same month, two Syrians who had arrived in Greece via Turkey were the first to be at imminent risk of forcible return to Turkey after the Appeals Committees rejected their appeals on “safe third country” grounds. In October, a third Syrian refugee was threatened with forcible return to Turkey after he was detained when his asylum appeal was dismissed by an Appeals Committee, on the same grounds. In November, the Council of State heard a petition which challenged the rejection of his asylum appeal on safe third-country grounds; Amnesty International Report 2016/17