FORGOTTEN
Administratively detained irregular migrants and asylum seekers
3. The procedures followed by the competent authorities regarding
administrative detention diverge from provisions laid down in the
legislation and from the governmental declarations of February 17,
2015. In particular, we observed that:
In the Hellenic Police Departments there are serious long-standing
systemic problems:
• Lack of an individualized approach based on the characteristics,
the situation and the needs of foreign nationals who are under
arrest
• Lack of use of alternatives to detention
• Systematic, unjustified detention of dubious legitimacy on the
grounds of public order
• Detention of individuals whose removal violates the principle
of non-refoulement
• Detention for a period longer than six months
• Re-arrest for the purpose of return despite prolonged and
ineffective previous detention
• Detention of seriously ill people
• Failure to take into account data that arise over the period
of detention regarding the health status of detainees and
extension of the detention of vulnerable persons
• Lack of interpretation services, indispensable to the detainees
in order to fully understand their legal status, the decisions
that concern them and the documents they are asked to sign
• Lack of free legal assistance
• Lack of information regarding an imminent enforcement of
forced return
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