major funders of legal aid inside detention has been offering ongoing funding for a number of years, yet, at no point has it met the actual needs of the detained population. Even, selffunded programmmes at border locations in Greece ‘remained very small in absolute and relevant volume’ (Kotsioni, 2016, p. 50).103 Therefore, limited funding created a very narrow space where the organisations could perform their duties. As a result, and reflecting the overconcentration of NGOs in the capital, services were mainly based in Athens, the country’s administrative centre for migrants and natives alike (Papadopoulos et al., 2013). All the same, services rarely included the regular presence of service providers inside detention centres, offering, for example, legal aid on a rota basis due to the lack of available lawyers. While funding constraints of local NGOs are practical matters debated at offices behind closed doors, their repercussions for the population behind bars were palpable. For many years, fewer than ten lawyers were available for the entire detained population across Greece, mainly through a limited number of organisations. While some had secure funding, others run on limited timeframe projects, leading to irregular and piecemeal services. For example, due to funding constraints, NGO AITIMA often self-funded their visits to centres and as of the end of 2019, they have ceased their operation.104 Remote locations were covered only through ad-hoc visits and following referrals by other organisations (e.g., after UNHCR’s monitoring visits). As an NGO lawyer put it to receive legal aid as a detainee ‘is entirely and absolutely a matter of chance…If there was a lawyer, who would be able to go to every police station and detention centre to check the detainees’ files, 1/3 would be automatically released’ (Interview, Athens, 2018). Instead, the vast majority of men, women and children remained locked up with almost no access to the outside world. Within this broader context, the service provision by the NGO Arogos, which had locally established teams of doctors, psychologists and social workers, at every detention facility in Athens from 2009 to 2013, was remarkable. The organisation had unique access to As Kotsioni (2016) reports, the MSF, acknowledging the constraints and ethical challenges inherent to operating in an environment of incarceration, considered activities inside immigration detention rather atypical. The MSF intervened in Lesvos and the wider Evros area, from 2009 to 2014, offering mainly primary healthcare provision, mental health and psychosocial support, identification and referral of vulnerable persons, and referrals for further medical care (Medicins Sans Frontieres, 2010; 2014). Despite the limited timeframe, this has been the lengthiest involvement of the organisation in a detention system so far. 104 There have, of course, been other organisations and individuals that offered legal aid to particular cases of people but have been limited in number and their interventions were more fragmented. 103 156