Introduction: A few words on *&5¶V0LVVLRQ and the Report1 Since March 2011, the Greek Council for Refugees has managed, despite significant challenges, to maintain a permanent mission of six staff 2 in the Evros Region with the task of providing legal assistance to asylum seeking detainees and other vulnerable groups in detention. They have been present in the detention facilities on an almost daily basis, developing a particular focus on minors in detention in addition to the legal assistance services provided to the detainee population. After a year of systematic monitoring and evaluation of childrHQ¶V needs and responses to the particular environment, some conclusions can safely be drawn regarding their entrance, stay and living conditions in the Evros region, which underscore the grave consequences of these conditions on their status and development. The focus of the study is on conditions in the Fylakeio 3 detention centre -- the largest such facility in the region, and the only one with a cell for minors exclusively. The detention center consistently hosts the highest number of minors arrested upon entering Greece in the Evros region, and is therefore the best focus for a case study highlighting the experience of minors in the region. Apart from a few minor differences, the major one being the number of detainees held, the conditions in other regional facilities are identical, despite the fact that minors are not generally separated from adults (the so-called mixed detention), a practice that in Fylakeio was only an issue on rare occasions. The one-year case study covers a period of 8 months of monitoring and evaluation and not 12 as one might expect. Access to the detention facility and interaction with the detainees was not possible for the entire year for a number of reasons which include arbitrary denial of access to the facility and the detainee population by police authorities 1 The present report is exclusively dedicated to minors. For an extended description of the situation, concerning adults and all detention facilities in the region, as well as national provisions and their actual application, see Proasyl, GCR, Infomobile. ³Walls of Shame. Accounts from the inside: The detention Centres of Evros´ Useful Links to Greek legislation and reports in English can be found DWWKHSUHVHQWUHSRUW¶VLQGH[HV, ,, 2 The mission consist 4 lawyers and 2 interpreters residing in Orestiada, Alexandroupoli and Komotini 3 ³)\ODNHLR6SHFLDO+ROGLQJ)DFLOLW\IRU,OOHJDO0LJUDQWV ǼȋȆǹ ´ 3