games played by detention staff at the expense of detainees, regardless of their vulnerable state.54 BVMN affirms that these types of psychological abuse could amount to degrading treatment, on the grounds that they are reported as intentful acts and considering the respondent’s expressions of the intensity of humiliation experienced. Respondent 15, Iraq. Detained in Amygdaleza PRDC. So there is violence, but it is not the common one which is the physical violence. It’s a psychological violence because they keep you there for no reason and you don’t know why or when you get out. You have no clue why you are there. So, a lot of people got affected from this because do you know why they are there? There is one guy from like Middle Africa. He was really in a not a good state. So he was telling them, “I want to go to France. Don’t keep me here. I wanna be free” and they told him “yeah tomorrow you will get out of this place. You will be free tomorrow,” so he grabbed all of his stuff and he went next to the fence and he was waiting there, to be free the next day. So he spent the whole day there waiting and probably slept and came back just to get out and when they came in the morning he told them. “You won’t let me free now? I’ve been waiting since yesterday.” Then they just laughed at him, he said. “Really, you believe that now you have nowhere to go.” Then he tried to hurt himself by climbing the fence. Then they went inside. They told him let’s go with us. They put him in the car. They took him to a place beating him up where nobody saw that. And then took him to a separate, police-like, cell. You know he was staying alone there in the cell for one month. Then, they got him out. Respondent 4, Algeria. Detained in Paranesti PRDC. One time when he was in Drama a guy was asking to go to the hospital and they took him because he ate some knives, small knives (razors) because he wanted to go. And when they took him to the hospital he managed to escape, they tried to find him, did not find him and came back to detention and went to his room and were looking for his phone and when they did not find the phone they just beated the respondent and everyone up. He was sleeping and they opened the door and beat him. While some respondents also reported on incidents of violence between detainees, it often came with a caveat that it was only a result of the structural violence that they were experiencing regarding their situation. According to testimonies, the general state of severe psychological suffering of detainees manifested in tensions between each other. This was particularly the case in overcrowded spaces - for example regarding individuals detained in police stations - or when individuals were detained for prolonged periods in poor conditions. According to previous cases at the ECtHR, individuals subjected to “hardship going beyond the unavoidable level of suffering inherent in detention” are subject to a violation of Article 3, ECHR.55 Therefore, obligations regarding detention conditions have been imposed on states, including cleanliness, size of cells, ventilation, heating and electricity as well as bedding.56 However, respondents frequently reported on the lack of dignity provided by detention conditions and testified to the reality of these standards not being met which, as a result, contributes to detention centres becoming sites which amplify tensions, as well as the psychological and physical suffering of people on the move. Respondent 6, Togo. Detained in Corinth PRDC. And they... it has made that place like a jungle. If you are not strong, you cannot survive. Because if somebody can beat you, he just, because we are almost all of us, like, let me say depressed. Because of what we are going through. So with little, small things we just start to fight. Small things, we fight. So someone can just maybe mistakenly step on your leg and that will become a big fight. And the police, they are not going to come and separate us or something. Respondent 12, Afghanistan. Detained in Corinth PRDC. I think the main problem with the people there is they fight with each other. It could be lots of things but sometimes they fight for a shower, they fight for room, they fight for everything. Also, because they are really experiencing a hard situation, they are waiting for a long time, for more than 10 months, so they really get mental health problems and they can’t control themselves and fight with each other. They can do nothing else. Verbal aggression and racist insults A clear pattern of verbal aggression, including the use of racist and discriminatory insults toward detainees was evident in our testimonies, with 25% of respondents reporting specifically on this. This verbal abuse fed into respondents general feelings of being treated like ‘animals’ and ‘criminals’ which, particularly over time, resulted in a deterioration of mental health. The Greek National Commission for Human Rights (GNCHR) has also acknowledged extensive evidence of racist and xenophobic violence toward refugees and asylum seekers in Greece, through their Racist Violence Recording Network (RVRN).57 This indicates a 16