Introduction ‘What didn’t you do to bury me…but you forgot I was a seed’ [και τι δεν κάνατε για να με θάψετε όμως ξεχάσατε πως ήμουν σπόρος], Ntinos Christianopoulos (1978), Greek poet Figure 2: The view from one the wings at the Petrou Ralli pre-removal detention centre Athens, 2018 In December 2018, together with two colleagues, I accompanied the Greek National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) on a monitoring visit to the Petrou Ralli pre-removal detention centre in Athens.1 When we walked onto one of the wings on the men’s section, we were quickly surrounded by the men. The corridor became blocked and we walked no more than three metres before we were unable to go any further because of the number of people wanting to tell the monitors about their cases. The discussions with the detained In the next chapter I explore in detail all the different roles that I have witnessed immigration detention in Greece in. 1 10