CAT/C/GRC/CO/5-6 The State party should fully guarantee and facilitate access to a fair and impartial individual asylum determination procedure. To this end, the State party should ensure that the important safeguards for quality and fairness of its asylum procedure as included in the recent asylum legislation be implemented in practice and supported with appropriate infrastructure, including through the prompt operationalization of the Asylum Service and the initial Reception Service. The State party should also ensure the provision of adequate information in relevant languages, legal aid and interpretative services to facilitate such access. In addition, the State party should dedicate the necessary human and financial resources to address the considerable backlog of cases of appeal of decisions on asylum. Non-refoulement 19. The Committee notes with serious concern that individuals have frequently not been able to enjoy full protection under the relevant articles of the Convention in relation to expulsion, return or deportation to another country. The Committee reiterates its concern at the State party’s implementation of its forced return procedures, including through means of direct deportation and application of its readmission agreement with Turkey. It is also concerned that persons who are subjected to forced return do not enjoy effective procedural guarantees to access legal remedies or access to the asylum procedure and that they do not have free legal aid or effective information provided through interpretation services. Consequently, they are not able to effectively appeal against orders of deportation and/or consequent detention. The Committee is concerned that these individuals are at a heightened risk of refoulement, including chain refoulement (art. 3). The State party should ensure full protection from refoulement by establishing the necessary safeguards in forced return procedures and thereby guarantee at all times that no person in need of international protection is returned to a country where he or she fears persecution or is in danger of being subjected to acts of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as well as chain refoulement. To this end, the State party should review the content of its readmission agreement with Turkey to ensure that it complies with the State party’s international law obligations. It should also ensure that appeals against return or expulsion orders have an automatic and immediate suspensive effect. Administrative detention of asylum seekers and migrants 20. The Committee expresses its concern at the current detention policy applied to asylum seekers and migrants in an irregular situation, including reports that asylum seekers at border locations are routinely subjected to long periods of administrative detention. The length of detention, in combination with the deplorable conditions of detention, amounts to inhuman or degrading treatment and constitutes a serious hindrance for asylum seekers to apply for asylum. Furthermore, the Committee is seriously concerned at the appalling conditions in the detention facilities, including regular police and border guard stations throughout the country, and particularly in the Evros region, in terms of severe overcrowding, insufficient staff levels, lack of basic supplies, as well as inadequate medical, psychological, social and legal support (arts. 2, 11 and 16). The State party should ensure that administrative detention on the grounds of irregular entry is not applied to asylum seekers. In particular, detention of asylum seekers should be used only in exceptional circumstances or as a measure of last resort, on grounds specifically prescribed by law, and then only for the shortest possible time. To this end, alternatives to detention should be duly examined and exhausted, especially with regard to vulnerable groups. The State party should also take urgent and effective measures to improve conditions of administrative detention through alleviation of overcrowding, appointment of a 6