I. INTRODUCTION A. The visit, the report and follow-up 1. In pursuance of Article 7 of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (hereinafter referred to as “the Convention”), a delegation of the CPT carried out a visit to Greece from 20 November to 1 December 2023. The visit was considered by the Committee “to be required in the circumstances” (cf. Article 7, paragraph 1, of the Convention). This was the Committee’s thirteenth ad hoc visit to Greece.1 2. The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT: - Gunda Wössner (Head of delegation) Jean-Charles Gardetto Nikola Kovačević Judith Öhri Karin Rowhani-Wimmer. They were supported by Hugh Chetwynd, Head of Division, and Sebastian Rietz of the CPT’s Secretariat, and assisted by three experts – Marija Definis, forensic medical doctor at the University Hospital in Split (Croatia), Richard Kirk, general practitioner and clinical director Healthcare in Prisons Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) and Cyrille Orizet, psychiatrist at the European Hospital Georges-Pompidou, Paris (France). 3. The report on the visit was adopted by the CPT at its 113th meeting, held from 4 to 8 March 2024, and transmitted to the authorities of Greece on 15 March 2024. The various recommendations, comments and requests for information made by the CPT are set out in bold type in the present report. The CPT requests that the authorities of Greece provide within three months a response containing a full account of action taken by them to implement the Committee’s recommendations, along with replies to the comments and requests for information formulated in this report. B. Context of the visit 4. The main objective of the visit was to examine the treatment of foreign nationals deprived of their liberty under immigration legislation. The visit also provided an opportunity to review the progress made by the Greek authorities in implementing the CPT’s recommendations in relation to immigration detention formulated in the reports on its visits in 2018 and 2020.2 5. The CPT has been very critical over the years of the way in which the Greek authorities treat detained foreign nationals. In the period after 2011, initial steps were taken to establish dedicated immigration detention centres in former police academies or military barracks and to gradually stop using police stations to hold persons under immigration legislation. However, the rationale has remained one of police detention, rather than an approach specifically tailored to the status and needs of persons held under administrative detention. 6. The goal of the current Government remains to better manage migratory arrivals, notably by strengthening border control measures and having a tougher stance on irregular migration, the reduction of arrivals and increased returns. In both the 2018 and 2020 visits, the CPT met far too many foreign nationals who continued to be warehoused in pre-removal detention centres (PRDCs) for six months or more in poor conditions of detention, without any purposeful activities and with inadequate provision of healthcare. Further, the Greek authorities continue to hold many persons in these centres. For example, in 2022, a total of 19 000 foreign nationals were held in PRDCs in the country. 1. The visit reports and the responses of the Greek authorities on all previous visits are available on the CPT website: https://www.coe.int/en/web/cpt. 2. See the report on the CPT’s 2018 visit (CPT/Inf (2019) 4); and the 2020 visit report (CPT/Inf (2020) 35). 6