24 GREECE IRREGULAR MIGRANTS AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS ROUTINELY DETAINED IN SUBSTANDARD CONDITIONS providing legal assistance to detainees. Those detained at the Ferres borderguard station told the organization that the police officers in charge ignored their pleas to be given access to a lawyer. Amnesty International delegates requested the list of local lawyers from the police officers in charge and showed it to the detainees. In addition, lawyers offering pro bono assistance spoke of barriers to their access to asylumseekers and irregular migrants who were detained in various borderguard stations in Evros, whom they were authorized to represent or tried to assist, even when they gave their client’s name to the police officers in charge. Those barriers included refusal to allow access to the detainee unless permission was received from the central police directorate of the Prefecture, and the borderguards’ refusal to confirm whether an individual was detained in the centre.85 A representative of the local Bar Association in Chios, who visits the Mersinidiou centre, said she faced difficulties because the local police authorities only gave her permission to attend the centre during morning hours, which is when lawyers need to be in court.86 There are also concerns about the lack of, or outdated, information materials about asylum determination and deportation procedures in several of the detention areas visited. Police authorities in Patmos, who were interviewed by Amnesty International in June 2009, were not aware that an information leaflet on asylum determination procedures was available in five languages. Some of the detainees in Ferres said they had not seen the government’s leaflets on asylum determination procedures and deportation procedures. At Mersinidiou the information leaflet was available only in the offices of the police but not in the dormitories and it did not include the legislative amendments of June 2009. Some of the detainees at the centre said that they had seen the leaflet, some that they had not. Furthermore, many of the detained asylum-seekers interviewed in September 2009 did not know about their right to appeal against a negative decision on their asylum application or what would happen to them if their asylum applications were rejected. During the May 2010 visit to Athens airport detention facility, the police authorities told the Amnesty International that there was only a leaflet on deportation procedures in five languages but no leaflet on asylum determination procedures in the facility. 3.5.2. COMMUNICATION WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD According to international human rights principles, irregular migrants and asylum-seekers who are detained should have the right to be visited by members of their family and for adequate opportunity to communicate with the outside world.87 The UNHCR Revised Guidelines on Applicable Criteria and Standards Relating to the Detention of Asylum-Seekers (1999) state that asylum-seekers in detention should be entitled, amongst other things, to contact with the local UNHCR Office and national refugee bodies and other agencies, and the opportunity to make regular contact with and receive visits from friends and relatives, religious, social and other counsel.88 The EU Returns Directive requires Member States to allow third-country nationals in detention to contact legal representatives, family members and competent consular authorities.89 Article 81 (1) of PD 90/2008 guarantees asylum-seekers the right not to be hindered in their contact with UNHCR or any other organizations which cooperate with UNHCR. Article 67(4) of PD 141/1991 stipulates that “…the police must facilitate telephone contact between the detainees and their families in order to inform them, if they so wish, of the place and reasons of their detention.”90 Amnesty International July 2010 Index: EUR 25/002/2010