Refugee Survey Quarterly  87 cooperate. In this article, “undesirable and unreturnable” TCNs include those who apply for asylum while in detention. As it will be discussed in Section 2, under domestic law administrative detention of undocumented TCNs is only permitted where removal is feasible, for a period of up to 18 months. Administrative detention of undocumented migrants whose removal is not feasible is thus prohibited by the Greek legislation and this is also the case for persons having applied for asylum before arrest as well as for those who have already been granted refugee or subsidiary protection status. However in practice, as it will be examined in Section 3, detention orders are also issued against TCNs for whom removal is not a realistic prospect, despite the legal restrictions apparently in place. This is most commonly the case for TCNs that are considered to constitute a danger to national security and/or public order. Hence, the article concludes that Greece should urgently identify lawful and effective measures to address the problem of undesirable and unreturnable TCNs that may be applied in lieu of arbitrary (and illegal) administrative detention. In this article, both legal and policy perspectives are employed to examine this question in the Greek context. European Union (EU) law and policy are also relevant in certain areas, as will be considered. The analysis builds on desk research, empirical legal findings,6 and information received by the Headquarters of the Hellenic Police for the purposes of this article.7 Together, these sources build a picture of the Greek authorities’ use of immigration detention as a national response to the problem of possibly dangerous but unreturnable foreigners. 2 . T H E LE G A L F R A M EW O R K OF D E T E NT IO N F O R U ND E S IR A BL E AN D U NR ET UR NAB L E T CN S In order to analyse and evaluate the use of detention as a national response to the problem of undesirable and unreturnable TCNs, we should first examine the relevant legislative framework regarding immigration detention. Before proceeding to this analysis, it is important to define the target group of this article – “undesirable and unreturnable” TCNs. Undocumented TCNs may be unreturnable for both legal and practical reasons. Their forced return can be either prohibited for legal reasons, because it would violate the non-refoulement principle or Greece’s other international human rights obligations,8 or unfeasible due to administrative and practical obstacles to 6 Provision of legal aid to administrative detainees in need of international protection since Feb. 2013 in the framework of a UNHCR project implemented by the Greek Council for Refugees. 7 E-mail correspondence in Jan. 2016 held on file by author. 8 Art. 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), ETS No. 005, 4 Nov. 1950 (entry into force: 3 Sep. 1953), in Legislative Decree 53/1974, Official Gazette A 256; Art. 3 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1465 UNTS 85, 10 Dec. 1984 (entry into force: 26 Jun. 1987), in Law 1782/1988, Official Gazette A 116; Arts. 6 and 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 999 UNTS 171, 16 Dec. 1966 (entry into force: 23 Mar. 1976), in Law 2462/1997, Official Gazette A 25. For certain nationalities among those in need of international protection, the Greek authorities officially declare that forced returns are not carried out. According to the Circulars of the Hellenic Police Headquarters 1604/15/1423412/10.8.2015 and 1604/ 15/2189144/30.11.2015, this provision includes citizens of Syria, Somalia, Eritrea, Myanmar, Mauritania, Palestinians and more recently South Sudan, Yemen and Iraq. See also relevant information to the Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/rsq/article-abstract/36/1/85/2888417 by Lancaster University user on 19 December 2017