4 Explanatory notes and references [1] This submission draws on research conducted by Mobile Info Team (MIT) and Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) into the conditions in which applicants of international protection and third country nationals subject to return orders are detained within the six Pre-Removal Detention Centres (PRDCs) on mainland Greece. [2] See IHR, ‘Joint Statement: Call for the closure of the Samos Closed Controlled Access Centre’, (3 May 2023), available here. [3] IHR argues in their recent report that the de facto detention in the CCAC amounts to an evasion of the implementation of legal safeguards. See IHR, ‘Press Release - The EU-funded Closed Controlled Access Centre: The De facto detention of asylum seekers on Samos’ (23 February 2023), available here. [4] See A/RES/76/172, 5(a), (b) and (h), available here. [5] See MIT, '‘Prison for Papers”: Last Resort Measures as Standard Procedure,' (2023), available here. [6] See, for example: 1. Amnesty International, 'Greece: Irregular migrants and asylum-seekers routinely detained in substandard conditions' (2010), available here. 2. Human Rights Watch, 'Greece: End Inhumane Detention Conditions for Migrants' (2010), available here. [7] IHR, ibid 3, page 41. This has also formed the basis for recent infringement proceedings against Greece by the European Commission. See: European Commission, ‘January Infringements Package: key decisions’, (26 January 2023), available here. [8] Article 40, Law No 4939/2022, Published in the Official Gazette 111/A/10-06-2022. This replaced an earlier version, Law No 2436/2019. [9] During the first 25 days, applicants undergo at least three interviews with the authorities, with some even having their fourth substantive asylum interview, before they can leave the CCAC. See MSF, ‘In Greek reception centers, asylum seekers are stranded in prison-like conditions’ (30 November 2022), available here. [10] The structure is surrounded by barbed wire fencing and CCTV, and guarded by Hellenic police (including Greek riot police) and the private security company, G4S. See Hellenic Ministry of Migration and Asylum, 'Closed Controlled Access Center of Samos', available here. [11] See, for example: 1. Report to the Greek Government on the visit to Greece carried out by the CPT from 4 to 16 April 2013, CPT/Inf (2014) 26, available here; 2. Human Rights Watch, 'Boys’ Drawings Expose Greece’s Broken Detention System' (2020), available here; 3. Greek Council for Refugees, 'Submission to the Council of Europe, Application no. 30696/09' (2014), available here.