Action plans to deal with a constructed crisis In August 2010, the Greek government submitted its ‘Action Plan on Asylum Reform and Migration Management’ to the European Commission, a plan that would be implemented in three years (Ministry of Citizen Protection, 2010). According to the Plan, the state would put forward a number of changes to its problematic asylum and reception systems, to which I referred in the previous chapter. One of the first steps was to pass Law 3907/2011 ‘Establishment of Asylum Service and First Reception Service, transposition into Greek legislation of the provisions of Directive 2008/115/EC on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third-country nationals, and other provisions’ in January 2011, introducing, as the title suggests, two much needed and long overdue agencies, the new independent Asylum Service and the First Reception Service (Law No. 3907/2011). However, these legislative changes, which were, all the same, not fully realised before 2013, were accompanied with measures targeting the border areas and the irregular population already in the country with a clear securitised approach that prioritised the establishment of new exemplary pre-removal detention centres and the efficiency of returns. To this effect, the Ministry of Citizen Protection concluded the technical specifications for places of detention, on the basis of which detention facilities would be constructed or renovated, especially in the area of Evros and also set up a committee in order to inspect detention facilities with respect to compliance with the terms and conditions of hygiene and safety of detainees. Along this line, in September 2011 a centre within the Aliens’ Directorate of Hellenic Police Headquarters was established, having as a primary mission to coordinate operational cooperation against irregular migration and ensure situational awareness, through the drafting of relevant monthly strategic analysis reports (European Migration Network, 2012). In a centralised system like Greece, such plans, perhaps inevitably, cannot leave its capital, Athens, unaffected. In a letter to the competent Ministries in July 2010, the Ombudsman warned of the main problems that citizens encountered in the city centre. Public health, he stated, had deteriorated and public order and safety, were seriously endangered. The letter went on to list the main factors that had contributed to these problems: a) the 96