D) The Greek Ombudsman During the summer of 2007 a unit of the GO carried out visits in detention facilities for aliens in Samos,26 Mytilini,27 Evros28 and in Rodopi.29 The problems found may be summarized as follows: inadequate administration of personal sanitary ware, issues of cleanness, inadequate number of telephone devices that operate with telephone cards, limited access to a foreyard, inadequate heating, and inadequacy of interpreters. We need to note that when the GO visited the alien detention facility in Pagani, it had considered the center’s facilities as good and satisfying the basic conditions for a decent stay. However, after two years the situation had deteriorated to such an extent that the Administration decided to close down the center. Moreover, the GO was very judgmental regarding the conditions, at that time, in the alien detention facility in Samos (an old tobacco factory), which closed down after a few months. Ε) Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch in the summer of 2008 carried out a field research mission.30 It interviewed 173 aliens and it visited many detention facilities for aliens. Its findings can be summarized as follows: inadequate food, limited access to a foreyard, overpopulation, lack of cleanness, inadequate sanitary ware. We note that it considered as satisfactory the conditions in the new detention facility for aliens in Samos. http://www.synigoros.gr/allodapoi/pdfs/_autopsia_samo_29_01.pdf [in Greek]. http://www.synigoros.gr/allodapoi/pdfs/_autopsia_lesvos_29_01.pdf [in Greek]. 28 http://www.synigoros.gr/allodapoi/pdfs/_autopsia_evros_29_01.pdf [in Greek]. 29 http://www.synigoros.gr/allodapoi/pdfs/_autopsia_thraki_29_01.pdf [in Greek]. 30 Human Rights Watch, Stuck in a Revolving Door: Iraqis and Other Asylum Seekers and Migrants at the Greece/Turkey Entrance to the European Union, November 2008. 26 27 8