The law sets out certain special guarantees on detention conditions for asylum applicants. Notably, the authorities must make efforts to ensure that detainees have necessary medical care, and that their right to legal representation is guaranteed.1217 In any event, according to the law, ‘difficulties in ensuring decent living conditions […] shall be taken into account when deciding to detain or to prolong detention.’ 1218 However, as it has been consistently reported by a range of actors, detention conditions for third-country nationals, including asylum applicants, do not meet the basic standards in Greece. 2.1. Conditions in pre-removal centres 2.1.1. Physical conditions and activities According to the law, detained asylum applicants shall have outdoor access. 1219 Women and men shall be detained separately,1220 unaccompanied children shall be held separately from adults, 1221 and families shall be held together to ensure family unity.1222 Moreover, the possibility to engage in leisure activities shall be granted to children.1223 GCR regularly visits pre-removal facilities depending on needs and availability of resources. According to GCR findings, as corroborated by national and international bodies, conditions in pre-removal detention centres vary to a great extent and in many cases fail to meet standards 1224. Overall detention conditions in pre-removal detention centres (PRDCs) remain substandard, despite some good practices, which have been adopted in some PRDCs (such as allowing detainees to use their mobile phones). Major concerns include a carceral, prison-like design, the lack of sufficient hygiene and non-food items, including clothes and shoes, clean mattresses and clean blankets, the lack of recreational activities, and overcrowding persisting in some facilities. Detention conditions remain a matter of significant concern, in particular by taking into consideration that, in many cases, detention is applied for prolonged periods. Let alone that detention in police station is still applied, conditions in PRDCs do not meet basic standards. The findings of the CPT that PRDFs are “not appropriately adapted for the detention of foreign nationals“ due to their canceral design, their “prison-like conditions”, poor state of maintenance, insufficient provision of hygiene products, clothes, shoes, lack of purposeful or recreative activites, etc. remain valid. 1225 Equally, the precise observations for each PRDC, included in the previous AIDA report, are still valid,1226 and further corroborated by recent findings. For example as reported by GCR following a visit at Amigdaleza PRDF in late July 2025 GCR reported inter alia: - “Poor maintenance of containers or containers that are completely unsuitable due to damage, toilets without running water, containers without electricity, resulting in the inability to use air conditioning during extreme heat. 1217 1218 1219 1220 1221 1222 1223 1224 1225 1226 Article 51 (7) Asylum Code. Article 50(2) and 50(3) Asylum Code. Article 51(7) Asylum Code. Article 53(4) Asylum Code. Article 53(2) Asylum Code. Articles 53(3) Asylum Code. Article 53(2) Asylum Code. See also CPT, Report to the Greek Government on the visit to Greece carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), 17 July 2024 available here; Equal Rights Beyond borders, Still Detained and Forgotten, 28 February 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/yhut82f9 and Mobile Info Team, Prison for Papers, February 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/3tjwazxf. CPT, Report to the Greek Government on the visit to Greece carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from 20 November to 1 December 2023, CPT/Inf (2024) 21, 12 July 2024, available at: https://rm.coe.int/1680b0e4e1, pp. 3-4. AIDA, Country Report: Greece, 2023 Update, June 2024, available here. 245