8. Lack of legal safeguards 8.2. Access to the outside world The detainees’ access to the outside world, e.g. via phone, is extremely restricted. More often than not, detainees could not inform anybody about their detention and whereabouts. N.H., a minor detained in Fylakio, said after two months in detention: »Until now I could not call my father to tell him that I am alive.«160 There is no access at all to internet, radio, TV, newspapers etc. In most cases, the deatinees’ personal items (i.e. mobile phones, calendars, notebooks, books, documents etc.) are confiscated by the police without proper registration or storage, and without issuing a confiscation record. During detention, they have no right to access their personal belongings. Upon release, things are rarely restored to them. Many detainees complained to us, that for these reasons they could not communicate with friends and relatives, they could not effectively pursue their asylum claim with the evidence they carried all the way to Greece. In the Evros region, there is not any local NGO or association having access to the detention centres. There are, however, a few Athens based NGOs, which temporarily run programs in the region (MSF, GCR, ARSIS). 8.3. Interpreters The absence of interpreters substantially curtails the rights of detainees, including those of asylum seekers. In general, no interpretation was provided to the detainees, neither during their registration, nor during their detention. Many times, co-detainees, who knew some poor English, covered the lack of interpreters. Consequently, the validity even of the initial registration of personal data is not guaranteed. Complaints or requests, including the asylum claim, cannot be heard or registered, let alone that a basic communication between the police and the detainees is made possible. 160 N.K. from Afghanistan; December 20, 2010 – Fylakio 49 8.4. The right to have a lawyer and obstacles to legal aid 8.4.1. Ineffective access to lawyers The detainees are not informed about their right to engage a lawyer. Neither is access to NGO staff guaranteed who could inform the detainees about their legal rights. Only those who have relatives or friends in Greece or other European countries can contact, engage and pay a lawyer. In Alexandroupolis area, lawyers who wish to visit particular detainees in the border guard stations, have to get a special permission from the police authorities in Alexandroupolis police directorate, indicating the name, surname and nationality of the person they want to visit. Then, they have to ask for another permit at the respective border guard station itself. In some cases, police arbitrarily denied access to the mission’s lawyers, without any legal reasons. On April 14, in the border guard station of Tychero, NGO lawyers asked permission to visit three female detainees, earlier transferred from Feres border guard station. The police officers denied access without any legal reasoning. Among the three detainees in question, there was one who had attempted suicide. The lawyers made a written request in order to have access, but the answer is pending ever since. On the same day, the mission’s lawyers asked to consult six detainees in the border guard station of Soufli, based on an authorization letter previously handed to them by the detainees, conferring the lawyers the legal right to represent the detainees. Among the latter, there was T.U. whose interview with the authorities was scheduled for the following day. It was extremely important to prepare him and to consult with the lawyers who would assist him during the procedure. The head of Soufli border guard police highhandedly denied access, even though it had already been granted by Alexandroupolis Police Directorate. Furthermore, access to the detainees’ files was also denied. Only after a couple of hours and repeated interventions, access was granted, but the time was not sufficient to provide legal counselling.