Extensive Frontex operations in the Aegean and the demining of Evros could be attributed for a change in the location of arrivals to Greece; in 2010 there were 47,088 land border apprehensions as opposed to 6,204 sea apprehensions. This development shifted the focus from the islands to the Evros region, which was now under European scrutiny. Very soon, in 2015, matters changed once more, with dramatic repercussions for those involved. That year, there were 856,723 arrivals by sea, an almost fivefold increase to the same period of 2014. While there have been fluctuations from 2015 up until today, Lesvos has remained a ‘hotspot’ for new arrivals.

Under the EU-Turkey deal, which came into force on 20 March 2016, people arriving on the Greek islands were immediately detained for 20 days within island sites known as ‘hotspots’ in order to be individually assessed by the Greek authorities. Following the 20 days’ period, they were released but have to remain on the island, thus further restricting their movement. Anyone who does not apply for asylum will be sent back to Turkey, as will anyone whose claim is rejected. In line with the Joint Action Plan on the implementation of the EU-Turkey statement, which recommended an increase in detention capacity on the islands, the pre-removal detention centre of Moria in Lesvos, initially established in 2015, was reopened in mid-2017.

People detained there are mostly those whose asylum claims are rejected at second instance, in order to be immediately returned to Turkey under the deal. At the same time, in the beginning of 2017, police begun implementing a ‘pilot’ detention practice, under which newly arrived persons belonging to particular nationalities with low recognition rates, are immediately placed in detention upon arrival and remain there for the entire asylum procedure. Since March 2017, the list includes 28 nationalities. As in other islands, serious deficiencies in the reception services on Lesvos have affected the practice of detention. Therefore, since November 2017, a practice of detention of Syrian nationals upon arrival is reported on Lesvos and Chios, subject to availability of detention places. Syrian nationals started being detained upon their arrival despite their explicit wish to apply for asylum and without being subjected to reception and identification procedures as provided by the law. For more on this issue see this report.

Because of the “deal” and the law on the organization and operation of the Asylum Service (article 41 Law 4375/2016), a special form of restriction of freedom was created, known as “geographic restriction”, which prohibits the departure of the asylum seekers from the islands. Those who violate geographical restriction are arrested and detained in police stations or a detention centre and when transferred back to the island are detained there too.

In its observations following a 2018 visit, the CPT noted that conditions of detention remain very poor at the centre in Moria with dirty bedding and no distribution of clothing or hygiene items; repair works are required as there have been problems identified with the sanitary (e.g. broken taps, leaking pipes) and ventilation equipment. Compounding matters, there are no doctors or nurses on site and medical services were occasionally covered by the doctors at the reception centre. The delegation also noted the carceral environment, mentioning the rolls of razor blade wires and high wire-mesh fences. Persons are locked in their rooms for around 22 hours per day and are allowed to use their phones only twice a week.

The delegation also heard several allegations of verbal abuse, including racist language, and disrespectful behaviour by police officers towards detained persons. In particular, a foreign national detained in Wing A alleged that four masked police officers had entered his detention room to search for drugs during the night of 1st April 2018 and had subjected him to several baton blows, because he had been screaming on account of an acute headache. Upon examination by the delegation’s medical doctor, two weeks later, he displayed four abrasions on his right lower leg beneath the knee and one abrasion beneath the left knee, which were consistent with the ill-treatment alleged. Another detained person claimed that he had received a kick by a police officer to his head behind the right ear during the same incident.

Despite sustained media and political interest in Greece as a key site of European border security and several disturbing accounts about life in Lesvos’ reception facility (see also here) and notwithstanding accounts of it being 'a prison within the prison within the prison', there is little information available about the pre-removal centre of Moria. In fact, as Rozakou argues, despite its proximity to the reception centre (it is located inside of it) the pre-removal centre was the least visited place in Moria by researchers and practitioners alike. It is time that we pay more attention to what goes on inside the Moria detention facility.

In the beginning of January 2020 a man committed suicide by hanging himself after he was transferred into an isolation cell and denied care. This prompted a call for the criminal investigation of the staff and services by the prosecutor. In April detained migrants went on a hunger strike, which was brutally suppressed by the police. At the end of August around 60 people went on another hunger strike. On the night of September 8, 2020, the hotspot of Moria on the Greek island of Lesvos was caught in a devastating fire. Refugees’ tents were completely destroyed, and about 13,000 women, men and children were forced to flee, while the Greek police was blocking NGOs from bringing aid and refugees from reaching the city of Mytilini by using tear gas. The Greek government declared a state of emergency on the island. This happened few days after the first case of Covid-19 was found there. On September 1, a 40-year-old Somali refugee was tested positive and the Greek authorities responded by putting the whole hotspot population in quarantine for two weeks. According to reports, the pre-removal detention centre was evacuated the night of the fire.