GREECE IRREGULAR MIGRANTS AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS ROUTINELY DETAINED IN SUBSTANDARD CONDITIONS 15 to a period of 60 days. Article 13(4) also requires that the relevant authorities inform the detained asylum-seekers of the reasons for and expected duration of their detention. In addition, under amendments introduced by Law 3772/2009 a foreign national can be deported if he or she has been prosecuted for a crime punishable by a minimum of three months’ imprisonment. Refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants legally residing in the country are not excluded from the scope of the amendment and thus can be issued with an administrative deportation order and subsequently detained on such ground. Asylum-seekers arrested at the country’s points of entry are treated in a similar fashion to irregular migrants. After being held for three days in detention, they are issued with an administrative deportation order. For the vast majority, the deportation order is accompanied by an order for the continuation of detention (see section 3.1 above). It appears that very few of the asylum-seekers arrested at the country’s points of entry apply for asylum there.42 The GCR has noted of certain cases in which asylum-seekers had first been held on the basis of administrative detention for the maximum detention period until July 2009 (three months) and then for 60 days on the basis of 13 (2) of PD 90/2008 and observed that this practice misinterpreted the ratio of the latter provision.43 In some instances, the nationality of asylum-seekers, and whether or not their country of origin was considered safe were among the determining criteria influencing the decision of the authorities to detain them during the determination of their asylum claim.44 Police authorities in Samos told Amnesty International in June 2009 that if the asylum-seeker’s country of origin was one where returns can take place, such as Iraq, the deportation order was accompanied with an order to continue the detention of the individual concerned. Even after they have registered their asylum claim with the competent authorities, asylumseekers can remain in detention, unless they are able to successfully challenge their detention before the competent administrative tribunal.45 Following the extension of the maximum period of detention to six months, detained asylum-seekers may continue to remain in detention following the rejection of their asylum application at first instance. In effect, asylum-seekers can be detained for lengthy periods in poor conditions, in facilities not designed for long-term detention. Delays in the formation of Advisory Refugee Committees to examine asylum applications at first instance, as provided for in June 2009, also contributed to the prolonged detention of many asylum-seekers. In January 2010, Amnesty International was informed about three Turkish asylum-seekers of Kurdish origin who had been arrested in early September 2009, and were still detained in the holding facility of the Aliens’ Police Directorate in Thessaloniki. According to their lawyer, the three had asked for asylum immediately after being arrested and their application was forwarded to the Asylum Department in Thessaloniki within a few days of their detention. Their claim was examined over four months later, at the end of January 2010. The three asylum-seekers were released in the first week of February 2010, a few days after the decision on their asylum application had been issued. The decision granted the three asylum-seekers humanitarian protection status for a period of two years. The case below concerns six Iranian asylum-seekers who were transferred along with 10 Afghan irregular migrants from the island of Samos to Athens on 14 January 2010 with a Index: EUR 25/002/2010 Amnesty International July 2010