Citizens Protection towards this direction have been issued. The practice of the Greek authorities is to keep in detention persons even in cases where it is clear that the purpose of detention cannot be achieved (deportation, completion of the asylum procedure), they exhaust the maximum detention periods -especially for asylum seekers – and it seems that they use detention, either in the framework of removal or within the asylum procedure, as a sanction per se. As concerns alternative measures they are never examined by the police authorities even in case of a person whose residence is known. Concerning the length of detention, Article 13.4 of the Presidential Decree 114/2010 has been recently amended by Presidential Decree 116/2012 in order to extend the maximum period of detention for asylum seekers. According to the new Presidential Decree, asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their application in Greece might be detained up to 18 months. The provisions governing the maximum length of detention extension of asylum seekers in Greece have recently been changed. According to the article 13 PD 114/2010 the maximum duration of the asylum seekers‟ detention is up to 90 days and according to the same article:” If the applicant has been detained earlier in view of an administrative deportation order, the total detention time can not exceed 180 days”. According to the new amendment, detention can be further prolonged up to 12 months, by a Police administrative decision. This change was brought about in the new Presidential Decree 116/2012, published at the Greek Government Gazette on 19 October 2012. This Presidential Decree breaches International law and European Union law and is to be annulled before the Council of the State after an application for revocation was lodged by Greek Council for Refugees. In addition to that, a new legislative provision introduced the health status as ground for detention of migrants and asylum seekers. Specifically a decision was issued by the Ministry of Health (G.Y. 39a/02-04-2012) which, inter allia : a) includes provisions, applicable also to asylum seekers, requiring by them to live, on their own means, in a residence that contributes to safeguarding the tenants‟ security, including their bodily and mental health, while the Greek State does not provide them reception conditions, although the State is obliged to do so by P.D. 220/2007 “Adapting the Reception Directive 2003/9/EC of 27 January 2003 laying down minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers (EEL 31/6.2.2003)” and b) includes obligatory control of migrants and asylum seekers for a number of diseases i.e. HIV, etc. and is used as a de facto ground for detention by the Greek authorities. This decision breaches International and European Union Law and is to be annulled before the Council of the State after an application for revocation was lodged by Greek Council for Refugees and the Greek Department of ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). A detention decision can be contested before the president of an Administrative Court of first instance. The procedure is called “objection against detention” and it has been repetitively judged by the ECtHR that does not constitute an effective legal remedy due to the fact that the control of the lawfulness of detention is excluded - (detention conditions, proportionality etc.).