FRONTIER EUROPE Human rights abuses on Greece’s border with Turkey 17 5. PROLONGED DETENTION OF ASYLUM SEEKERS AND IRREGULAR MIGRANTS “What kind of a law can keep us here for a year? I am not a murderer, not a criminal. I am just a migrant. I just came here for a good life.” A young Afghan man detained in Fylakio Immigration Detention Centre. The extensive and indiscriminate use of detention is a central plank of Greece’s migration policy. The EU law33 and the Greek law allows the detention of irregular migrants for the purposes of deportation or return up to six months, which can be extended for a maximum of 12 months if certain conditions apply.34 Since October 2012, asylum seekers can now be detained also for up to 18 months.35 Many of the irregular migrants and asylum seekers that Amnesty International met during the organization's mission to Greece in April 2013 had been held for periods of six to nine months. On the islands, reportedly due to limited detention capacity, people are released more quickly with orders to leave the country in periods ranging from seven to 30 days.36 However, as Greece aims to increase the detention capacity of its six major immigration detention centres from 5,00037 to 10,000 through EU co-financing, longer periods of detention can be expected in the future. 38 The possibility of being detained and re-detained for up to 18 months solely because of their irregular status in Greece caused serious distress for the refugees and migrants Amnesty International met. They were unable to understand why they were being held for so long; and said that they received no information about how much longer they might be detained. “I have been here for nine months: they say they can keep me another nine. Then they will give me a paper to leave Greece in seven days. How can I arrange to leave Greece in seven days? I cannot even make a phone call here. They will just arrest me again.” A Guinean migrant in one of the large detention facilities in the Evros region. Under international and EU law,39 Greece should prove - in each individual case – that detention of a person for immigration purposes is both necessary and proportional, and that less coercive measures would not be sufficient. Greek authorities must use and make available alternative measures to detention both in law and in practice.40 However in Greece, irregular migrants and asylum seekers are automatically detained if they are apprehended in an irregular situation, either while entering the country or during their stay. Testimony Index: 25/008/2013 Amnesty International July 2013