Whereas previously much of Greek society was either tolerant or indifferent to immigrant population, since the economic crisis of 2008, matters have changed dramatically. Most discussions of mobility have been marked by a toxic combination of securitization and racism. Politicians of all stripes, not just members of far-right parties like Golden Dawn, blame irregular migrants for rising crime, urban degradation, and widespread economic hardship endured by citizens. In the lead-up to the May and June 2012 national elections, immigration detention and border control more generally, became a lightning rod for public opinion, deployed as a cynical political tool to demonstrate the parties' determination to salvage Greek national pride.

In the June 2012 national elections, the conservative party, New Democracy, came into power. Fascist Golden Dawn secured 19 seats in the Parliament, for a first time in its history, bringing unapologetically and openly racist rhetoric into the heart of governance. The new government, shortly after taking power, launched the largest, in terms of both geographic coverage and intensity, sweep operation, Xenios Zeus. In a perverse reference to the ancient Greek God Zeus, as a symbol of hospitality to and patronage of foreigners, the operation aimed to arrest and detain all irregular migrants in the Greek territory, mobilizing around 2,000 police officers for this purpose. Despite the fact that only 6 per cent of stops led to the identification of undocumented migrants, the operation was directly linked to the enlargement of the detention population.

Between April and September 2012, four pre-removal facilities were opened in the Attica region and by the Greek-Turkish land border with a total capacity of 3,555, in addition to special holding facilities and police and border guard stations. Through the modification of the Presidential Decree 114/2010, in 2012 Greece imposed by law the maximum time for detention of 18 months (prescribed in the Return Directive, under exceptional circumstances only) for both irregular migrants and asylum seekers. As then Minister of Citizen’s Protection, Nikos Dendias, stated: ‘Our aim is that every illegal migrant...will be detained until he is returned to his home country’.

The first purpose-built camp, the pre-removal centre of Amygdaleza, opened its doors on 28 April 2012. Located right next to the police academy in northern Athens, it was surrounded by a wired fence and equipped with 250 containers Amygdaleza was designed to host 2,000 detainees in ‘exemplary’ facilities. Its size and layout make it look more like a camp rather than a centre. When it opened, it was comprised of 300 fabricated containers divided along 3 sections. In each compound of every section there are three or four rows of containers. Each room houses 8 people and is equipped with a table, chairs, and a cupboard, as well as a toilet. Those detained could remain outside for eight hours a day. While these conditions were better compared to the country’s substandard facilities, this does not render Amygdaleza exemplary in any way.

On an annual budget of 10,500,000 euros, roughly 14 euros per person per day, the money is hardly enough to cover the daily needs of 2,000 persons. As the CPT reported in 2013 ‘two general practitioners and two nurses were present at the centre every weekday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; at weekends, persons in need would be transferred to the local hospital. There was a full-time psychologist and a psychiatrist visited the centre once a week, but there was no dentist. This is far from sufficient for a detainee population of some 1,600 persons.’ As there was an almost total lack of purposeful or recreational activities on offer this meant they could just walk or kick a ball in the outside space comprised solely of gravel paths. What is more, even though visits were often, there was no special room provided. Instead, people had to meet with their visitors through the fencing enclosing their compound. When asked about the living conditions of the centre for a TV show in 2012, Mr Dendias, the Minister of Public Protection was clear: ‘We make sure we follow European standards. However, conditions are not ideal, this is not a hotel. The logic is that ‘humanely acceptable deficiencies’ will force irregulars out of Greece’. These ‘humanely acceptable deficiencies’ were coupled with by then widespread ill-treatment of foreign nationals by law enforcement agencies. According to CPT, several persons alleged that they had received slaps, kicks and blows with a baton and a person who had been taken to the hospital after an act of self-harm, claimed he had been handcuffed to the fence of his compound for a whole day upon his return to the centre. Other allegations were made against abuse by detention officers of people who were on hunger strike.

Following a series of similar abuses, including the death of one man, Mohamad Hassan, of an infection which had been ignored for months, and the announcement of their detention extended from 12 to 18 months, in August 2013 immigrants detained there, refused to be locked back in their rooms and set fire to their bedding. Greek riot police were deployed to forcefully end the riot, during which 10 people managed to escape. As a punishment, detainees were not allowed out of their rooms for days and those held responsible for the riot were charged with felony crimes and sent to prison. In November 2014, following yet another death (the 4th since the centre opened) and amid reports which cast Amygdaleza as a modern Dachau, where rooms were left without electricity for days, medical care was lacking and personal hygiene could not be observed, more than 90% of the population detained went on a long hunger strike.

In February 2015, when the new left-wing government came to power, it assured Greek citizens that immigration detention centres belonged to the past, committing to its election pledge to reverse anti-immigrant policies of the previous right-wing government. To this effect, it formed a new Immigration Policy Ministry under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At a visit to the infamous, by then, Amygdaleza pre-removal detention centre, following the suicide of a Pakistani detainee, then Deputy Minister of Citizen’s Protection, Yannis Panousis, said ‘I am here to express my embarrassment. We are done with detention centres’. Indeed, in March 2015, the government started evacuating this centre at a rate of 30 migrants per day, amid great fanfare about the humanitarian face of the new era and, to its credit, despite fervent opposition not only by other parties but also by local residents. The aim was to close down the centre within 100 days, and other centres as soon as possible. It was a moment much celebrated by NGOs and human rights organisations, as this was the first time a member of a Greek government spoke openly about what was going on inside detention facilities.

However, Amygdaleza never closed. In fact, the closure of the ‘Western Balkan route’ and the activation of the EU-Turkey Statement in March 2016 made detention yet again a key means to migration control. When the Border Criminologies research group visited the centre at the end of 2016 the facility had a reduced capacity. This, however, did not preclude overcrowding in the compounds that were in use. The Deputy Director we met told us that the overcrowding was due to detainees damaging some units. Indeed, seven out of 13 wings were out of use, due to the significant degradation or destruction (including by arson) of most of the accommodation containers in these wings.

‘We spoke to a number of men through the fences but were not permitted to enter the detainee compounds. Many of the men were angry and frustrated. They complained about the lack of hot water, poor access to their mobile phones, lack of understanding of their cases and, in particular, the cold. One man said ‘I wear all my clothes at night and still I am cold’. The lack of well-maintained modern facilities was identified by the deputy director as a major problem, which frustrated detainees and made it difficult to manage them. She mentioned 80 broken air conditioner units, and was hoping that the ICRC would pay for repairs.

The deputy centre manager said that it was not unusual for men to be held there for around six months, but that 17 men had been detained in the centre for over a year. She felt length of stay was the biggest problem managers faced, as it leads to frustration and sometimes violence. Anyone who was considered a control problem, she said, was transferred to the Petrou Ralli facility. Many detainees also had health problems, which were difficult to manage because there were few doctors at the centre and to take them to a hospital meant losing officers to escort duties. There were no activities to keep men occupied and promote mental and physical health. The staff seemed to view the men as problems. They had no particular detention training, for example in managing self-harm or recognising mental health problems. We saw no engagement between the police officers and detainees.’ Having visited the centre in 2016, AITIMA observed that in some containers the equipment, such as air-conditioning, hot water, and toilets, was defective. The quantity of food and personal hygiene products to be distributed was also insufficient.

Similar complaints were reported by the CPT after its visit in 2018. Despite there being an open-door regime applied and persons having access to their mobile phones, problems remained. For example, in the course of the visit, the delegation was informed of the death of a foreign national on 7 April 2018 during his transfer from Amygdaleza Pre-removal Centre to a hospital. It turned out that he had not been seen by health-care staff upon his arrival at the centre and his medical file, including blood results suggesting he was suffering from an infection had not been transferred to Amygdaleza. Overcrowding in some units ‘was mainly due to the many problems with the plumbing (e.g. non-functioning showers/toilets or leaking pipes), electricity (e.g. non-functioning lights and electrical outlets) or other damage (e.g. broken doors) in other units. Thus, some units could no longer be used for accommodation, while others were still used despite their state of disrepair.’ Some foreign nationals also indicated that their bedding and blankets had not been cleaned for several months. There was an almost total lack of purposeful or recreational activities on offer to detained foreign nationals. Moreover, as GCR reports despite the fact that a playground was built, families with children and unaccompanied children do not have access to it.

Amygdaleza Minor’s unit

One of the first obstacles unaccompanied minors face upon arrival in Greece is navigating through the complicated and ever shifting legal framework. Legal protection does not automatically translate into actual protection due to poor implementation. While Greek legislation establishes the obligations of different authorities to care for and protect unaccompanied boys and girls, the situation on the ground is woeful. National legislation does not explicitly prohibit detention of unaccompanied children and the latter is applied in practice. Due to the lack of appropriate accommodation facilities for children, detention, or as it is euphemistically called ‘protective custody’, is systematically imposed and may be prolonged for periods ranging from a few days to more than two months, pending their transfer to an accommodation facility. Unaccompanied children could be detained anywhere, in police stations and pre-removal facilities on the mainland or in Reception and Identification Centres on the islands in unacceptable conditions. It should be noted that since during this phase children are not detained for administrative purposes (i.e. for the purpose of return or deportation), legal remedies provided by the law to challenge administrative detention do not apply. As of the end of October 2019, there were 1,244 places in long-term accommodation and 840 places in temporary accommodation, such as safe zones and emergency hotels. 1,760 children were held in these facilities, while 1,598 children were in Reception and Identification centres on the islands and 234 were in protective custody. Another 1,210 were found in insecure housing conditions.

The Amygdaleza Special holding facility for unaccompanied minors, located very close to the Amygdaleza facility for adults, is the site where unaccompanied children had been held for years under the ‘protective custody’ terms. As there are no specific operating rules, it was essentially run like a police detention facility. Alarmingly, the CPT in 2013 reported that whenever children posed a problem, they would be transferred to Petrou Ralli. The Amygdaleza centre, sited within a warehouse-type structure has four large rooms (each measuring approximately 55 m²) with high ceilings, equipped with 10 concrete plinths for sleeping purposes and 10 concrete benches, which were also used for storing belongings.

When the Border Criminologies research group visited the facility in December 2016 it found that the mattresses were very dirty and stained. ‘The blue painted rooms were cold and covered in graffiti. The boys said they were bitten by insects during the night and we could see insects moving on their mattresses. The shower and toilet areas were dirty and moldy. The boys said they washed clothes with cold water in sinks and left them out to dry in the washroom and we could see clothes put out to dry.’ As the CPT reported the same year, ‘the floor in the shower and toilet area of the Amygdaleza holding facility was repeatedly flooded with effluent due to a broken drain; a situation that had existed for over a month. Many juveniles were bare-footed and had to walk through the effluent, given that they were not provided with any footwear’. There is an outdoor space, a small concrete outdoor exercise yard, fully sheltered and enclosed with metal bars, but as has been documented the gate was rarely opened. it was locked off during our visit. An officer said the boys were allowed out every day but the boys themselves told us it was rare for the gate to be opened. We established from other staff that the gate had not been opened for several days. The centre also has a dining area with a television.

When the centre was visited by the CPT in 2013, NGOs had a daily presence with psychologists and social workers. However, today apart from rare visits by the Red Cross, no educational or purposeful activities are offered. ‘A group of Pakistani boys spoke to us at length and the conversations were troubling. Some had been rescued from a sinking ship and still appeared to be traumatised. A manager told us that some of the boys were depressed or anxious.’ Given their traumatic journeys and experiences the facility is totally unsuitable for accommodating children. Shortly after the Border Criminologies visit the facility closed. Yet, it has been reopened. As the CPT notes after its 2018 visit, 22 minors were held at Amygdaleza, though the facility should no longer be used for detaining children as it is unsuitable to meet their needs. For a recent report on the situation of unaccompanied minors in Greece, see here.