Coping with a fundamental rights emergency – The situation of people crossing the Greek border in an irregular manner establishment of detention space for irregular immigrants lies with the services of the Interior Ministry. Specifically, aliens awaiting deportation are detained by the local police authorities and until deportation procedures are concluded may remain in special facilities, which are established by decision of the General Secretary of the Region and operate under the responsibility of the Region. This decision also establishes the specifications and terms for the operation of these facilities, while the Hellenic police has only the responsibility for guarding the facilities.”41 Article 81 of Law 3386/2005 foresees that special premises to detain persons pending removal should be established by a joint decision of five ministries laying down the standards and terms of operation of such centres. However, no such decision was ever taken for the centres in Evros. It seems that arrangements were made in the past at a local level between the police directorates and the Prefecture, whereby the latter undertook to pay the bills for certain costs, such as catering and cleaning. According to a press statement of the Prefect the cost for catering was €250.000 monthly.42 Such arrangements have been overtaken by the re‐organisation of local administrations which abolished the Prefectures and moved their tasks either to the municipalities or the regions. 43 Although the Prefectures already stopped to function on 1 January 2011 with the entry into force of the Kallikratis reform, at the end of January 2011, there was no clarity as to who would be responsible at least for those costs which were in the past covered by the Prefecture. While the Head of the Thrace and Macedonia region (who is responsible for Evros) was aware of the issue, this had not yet been discussed with any of the three municipalities that the FRA visited. Two out of three municipalities were even not aware of the new law and of possible new tasks that could derive from it for them. With the 2011 law, the use of these facilities is assigned to the Ministry of Citizen Protection which can regulate them through a Ministerial decision (Article 15). In addition, the budget line used by the Prefectures to cover such costs is being moved from the Ministry of Interior to the Ministry of Citizen Protection. It remains, however, to be seen whether the new law can resolve the current stalemate as to who should pay for what. As a result, essentially only the catering contract continued to be implemented without major interferences, as the catering company agreed to continue to deliver the food even if it remained unclear who would cover the invoices. Cleaning services have been substantially reduced and other services stopped. As an illustration, in Fylakio, the police had an arrangement with a local laundry service to clean the blankets. The bill was paid by the Prefecture. As the latter is not existent anymore, the company does not anymore accept to clean and disinfect the blankets as they fear that nobody would cover the costs. Blankets remain dirty. The interruption of such services further contributes to a deterioration of the conditions in the detention facility, creating tensions. 41 Deputy Minister response to parliamentary question (7017/4/4975/7‐4‐05), available (in Greek) at: www.hellenicparliament.gr/Praktika/Synedriaseis‐Olomeleias?sessionRecord=72a24034‐8009‐4d51‐bea7‐8811b08bba69. 42 See (in Greek): http://news.kathimerini.gr/4dcgi/_w_articles_ell_1_15/10/2010_418795. 43 The so‐called ‘Kallikratis reform’ was adopted on 2 June 2010. The Greek version of the law is available at: www.ypes.gr/UserFiles/f0ff9297‐f516‐40ff‐a70e‐eca84e2ec9b9/KALLIKRATIS12.pdf. 29