The respondent is an Egyptian national who arrived in Crete from Libya in August 2025 and was subjected to the unlawful suspension of asylum applications, implemented by the Greek government between July-October 2025 for all third country nationals arriving from North Africa. He was automatically detained on arrival to Greece, without access to the asylum procedure or information on his rights, and remained in detention after the ban was lifted. He reported travelling by boat with around 70 other people, being transferred to the port of Heraklion and being detained in the Hellenic Coast Guard security building for 16 days, along with the group of people he arrived with and 40-50 Sudanese nationals. In the Coast Guard building, the respondent reportedly had his phone taken from him and was asked to share the passcode. In the facility, he reported being provided with two small bottles of water and two meals per day. “They did not give us clothes. Each time we wanted to take a shower they forbidden us.” He described that there were no windows in the facility and that the doors were closed “with metal bars.” The respondent further reported that the use of toilets needed to be authorised by the facility’s staff and that people would be escorted to prevent them from escaping. He also described unsanitary conditions and lack of beds in the rooms: “We had only blankets. We used to use them as mattresses. These blankets caused us skin problems, the skin became itchy.” He also described the healthcare provision as sporadic. The respondent reported taking part in a hunger strike, which resulted in a few people being taken away by an ambulance and then followed by violent repression.

After being detained in Crete for 16 days, the respondent was reportedly transferred to the Special Detention Facility of Serres, in Sintiki. Upon arrival, he was reportedly provided with documentation in Arabic. He described overcrowded containers hosting between 7-14 people, with some being forced to sleep on blankets on the floor. The respondent reported that there was a lack of hot water during the winter months and unaffordable prices of goods sold within the facility. The respondent witnessed violent repressions of protests by detainees. The respondent reported that he had a critical lack of information on the asylum procedure, and was not able to consult a lawyer in order to submit an appeal after he received a rejection on his claim: “They [authorities in the facility] did the appeal on my behalf without asking me or seeing the lawyer. And without me signing the appeal.” Finally, he described experiencing severe psychological distress since his arrival in Greece: “We have been in shock since we arrived here. We thought that we left the deprivation and the unfairness in our countries and [that] we have arrived in the human rights countries, to Europe, until we saw the reality here and we had the shock. [...] I was having psychological treatment in my country, in Egypt and I had a relapse because of what I have been through. I just went back to the treatment.”