1. Introduction
This report is the product of the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) who
documents violence against people on the move in Greece. In addition to
recording testimonies of pushbacks across international borders, BVMN collects
evidence of physical, material, and structural violence against people on the
move within state borders. The Internal Violence Report draws from testimonies
collected in the last months pertaining to conditions in detention, violence in
detention, police brutality, racist violence, interrupted pushbacks and hate crimes.
Focused on Greece, this report analyses deliberate acts of physical violence in
addition to the indirect, structural violence inherent in the widespread practice of
denying access to decent living conditions, adequate food and water, healthcare
and psychological support within Greek detention facilities. In this way, the report
seeks to document both the active and insidious forms of violence people on the
move face within diverse spaces of containment in Greece.
2023 was eventful in Greek politics. A deadly train crash in Tempei in February
reignited concerns about political impunity in Greece, prompting mass calls for
accountability from Greek society and victims' families. This recurring issue of
impunity, marked by government negligence and the normalisation of political
violence, especially during elections, remained a pressing concern. Despite falling
slightly short of an absolute majority in the first round of elections in late May, the
Nea Demokratia Government called for a second round, aiming to secure a clear
majority. However, just ten days before the second vote, Greece was rocked by its
largest-ever shipwreck, leading to preventable deaths of at least 600 people on
the move, prompting dubious government explanations and multiple versions of
the events leading up to the sinking of the boat, deepening societal distrust.
Nonetheless, the Nea Demokratia party ultimately achieved a majority in the June
elections.
Against this backdrop, and according to UNHCR statistics, the number of people
arriving to Greece in 2023 far exceeded the number of arrivals recorded in 2022,
reaching the highest number of arrivals since 2019. Moreover, these figures may
only represent a fraction of the people who have attempted to reach Greek
territory, when considering the systematic practices of pushbacks at land and sea
borders. In parallel to the ongoing efforts to fortify the Greek-Turkish border with
technology and personnel, the Greek government has prioritised controlling people
on the move by expanding the use of detention in tandem with the intensification
of policing within urban spaces. For irregularly arriving or staying third country
nationals who wish to register an asylum claim, a mandatory period of de facto
detention up to 25 days is now implemented across the islands and the mainland,
with people experiencing longer periods of detention on the islands in times of high
arrivals. In addition, despite EU law clearly dictating that detention should only be
used as a measure of last resort, in 2021 the Greek government implemented a law
that overturned this principle, leading to the systematic detention of third country
nationals subject to removal. Finally, the excessive use of detention measures for
asylum applicants on public order grounds has contributed to the 697% rise in
asylum detention orders between 2021 and 2022. Consequently, while people on
the move may be deprived of their liberty on diverse legal grounds and within
different facilities [see below], this report analyses practices of violence across
various detention sites in Greece, showing how these collectively form a broader
policy of containment and control across Greece.
4
In 2020, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) released a report
following an ad hoc visit to several Greek detention centres, including police and
border guard stations, Reception and Identification Centres (RICs), camps and Preremoval Detention Centres (PRDCs). The Committee concluded that despite consi-