Submission to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Preparation for its Mission to Greece in December 2019 The Global Detention Project (GDP) and the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) are pleased to provide the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) the following submission in preparation for its visit to Greece in December 2019. The submission concerns the detention of migrants and refugees and mainly addresses situations that fall within the scope of the WGAD’s Category IV of types of arbitrary detention, namely: “when asylum seekers, refugees or migrants are subjected to prolonged administrative custody without the possibility of administrative or judicial review or remedy.” Following the WGAD’s visit to Greece in January 2013, the Working Group issued a number of recommendations relating to immigration detention.1 In addition to highlighting critical new concerns that have emerged since the 2013 visit, this submission provides some details that may assist the WGAD in assessing whether its previous recommendations have been implemented in light of the WGAD’s Revised Deliberation No.5. The key recommendations from 2013 were: • • • • • Lawfulness and proportionality of detention: the WGAD recommended that Greece use detention as a last resort and explore “alternatives to detention”; Length of detention: the WGAD recommended that detention be limited to the minimum time necessary to carry out removal or other proceedings; Children: the WGAD recommended that Greece refrain from detaining unaccompanied children and families with children; Procedural safeguards: the WGAD recommended that Greece systematically inform detainees in writing and in a language they understand the reasons for their detention and their rights, and ensure that detainees have access to interpreters and lawyers and the possibility to challenge their detention; Conditions of detention: the WGAD urged Greece to place migrants in dedicated detention facilities and ensure hygienic conditions, adequate food, clothes, space, and freedom of movement in the facility. Similar recommendations were recently formulated by other international monitoring bodies. Following his mission to Greece in May 2016, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants (SRHRM) urged Greece to consider alternatives to detention, order detention based on individual assessment, refrain from detaining unaccompanied children and families with children, improve detention conditions and procedural safeguards, ensure independent monitoring of the centres, and ensure that immigration detainees have access to lawyer, can promptly contact their Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, “Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: Addendum: Mission to Greece, A/HRC/27/48/Add.2,” 30 June 2014, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/ENACARegion/Pages/GRIndex.aspx 1 GDP & GCR 2019 3