Not only is the practice of detention concerning due to the unlawful deprivation of a person's
liberty, the conditions of PRDCs have been extensively criticised by civil society actors.[10] The
European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (CPT) has carried out country visits to Greece since 2005, consistently noting the
substandard, and often appalling, conditions of PRDCs. Despite the strong recommendations
made to the Greek State post country visits, many issues remain unchanged. In addition, some
PRDCs have not been visited for over five years, failing to follow up on the concerns previously
raised. In 2022, the only facilities that the CPT visited and inspected were judicial prisons, for
example Korydallos and Nigrita. Several issues that emerged from the 2022 report are relevant to
PRDCs, including the deterioration of conditions and treatment of detainees, severe lack of
healthcare, and concerning divergence from European standards that pertain to human rights.
These patterns are systematically witnessed in detention facilities across Greece, and require
urgent attention.
This report analyses 50 interviews with people who have been detained since 2020 on mainland
Greece, as well as including a case register analysis of more than 600 cases. The research was
conducted between April and November 2022, with the aim of investigating the use and practice
of administrative detention on mainland Greece, and particularly focusing on access to asylum
procedures and the conditions of PRDCs. In this sense, we used 46 of the interviews with people
in PRDCs for further analysis. The report additionally details a comprehensive overview of the
legislative background of detention, at European and national level, as well as providing an indepth site overview of each of the PRDCs on mainland Greece. Mobile Info Team has consistently
noted the severe lack of access to basic services in detention centres, such as legal counselling,
medical care and recreational activities. Our aim is to highlight the stark contrast between legal
systems and the practical realities of detention in Greece. As such, Mobile Info Team highlights
alternative measures to detention, all of which should be exhausted before resorting to the
deprivation of liberty.
Despite detention being used in Greece to deprive people on the move of their liberty in several
stages of the asylum procedure, including the proliferation of detention in Reception and
Identification centres (RIC), or Closed Control Structures since 2020, this report focuses on people
held in PRDCs on the mainland. In addition, we acknowledge the significant number of people
detained in police stations for arbitrary reasons, and for long beyond the legal time limit of one
month, under appalling conditions that many of our respondents also commented on. However,
this report will not focus on these facilities, and instead, aims to analyse the detention of
applicants of international protection in PRDCs, or third country nationals detained in PRDCs view
of removal.
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