While undeniably Lesvos and the Moria camp have been deeply traumatising for all those affected, a separate building within the Moria camp was hidden away from the areas where celebrities flocked, with cameras in tow, and practitioners and volunteers visited every day. The pre-removal detention centre inside the Moria camp was the blind spot in the mediatised ‘border spectacle’ full of suffering and misery.

In line with the Joint Action Plan on the implementation of the EU-Turkey statement, which recommended an increase in detention capacity on the islands, the pre-removal detention centre of Moria in Lesvos, initially established in 2015, was reopened in mid-2017.

From 2017 until 2020, when the fire that broke in Moria destroyed the camp and forced the authorities to evacuate the pre-removal detention centre too, nearly 3,000 people had been detained inside the centre, which had an official capacity of 420. People detained there were mostly those whose asylum claims were rejected at second instance, in order to be immediately returned to Turkey under the deal. At the same time, in the beginning of 2017, police begun implementing a ‘pilot’ detention practice, under which newly arrived persons belonging to particular nationalities with low recognition rates, were immediately placed in detention upon arrival and remained there for the entire asylum procedure. As of March 2017, the list included 28 nationalities. As in other islands, serious deficiencies in the reception services on Lesvos affected the practice of detention. Therefore, since November 2017, a practice of detention of Syrian nationals upon arrival was reported on Lesvos and Chios, subject to availability of detention places. Syrian nationals started being detained upon their arrival despite their explicit wish to apply for asylum and without being subjected to reception and identification procedures as provided by the law.

Because of the “deal” and the law on the organization and operation of the Asylum Service (article 41 Law 4375/2016), a special form of restriction of freedom was created, known as “geographic restriction”, which prohibited the departure of the asylum seekers from the islands. Those who violated their geographical restriction were arrested and detained in police stations or a detention centre and when transferred back to the island were kept in Moria PRDC.

In its observations following a visit in 2018, the CPT noted that conditions of detention remained very poor at the centre in Moria with dirty bedding and no distribution of clothing or hygiene items; repair works were required as there had been problems identified with the sanitary (e.g. broken taps, leaking pipes) and ventilation equipment.

Despite sustained media and political interest in Greece as a key site of European border security and several disturbing accounts about life in Moria reception facility and notwithstanding accounts of the PRDC being 'a prison within the prison within the prison', there is little information available about it. In fact, as the researcher, Katerina Rozakou, argues, despite its proximity to the reception centre the pre-removal centre was the least visited place in Moria by researchers and practitioners alike.

In the beginning of January 2020 a man allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself after he was transferred into an isolation cell and denied care. This prompted a call for the criminal investigation of the staff and services by the prosecutor. In April of the same year and then again in August detained migrants went on a hunger strike. The first one was brutally suppressed by the police. Four detainees sewed their mouths closed in protest, however after a few hours a doctor was called to come and remove the thread by force.

On the night of September 8, 2020, the hotspot of Moria on the Greek island of Lesvos was caught in a devastating fire. Refugees’ tents were completely destroyed, and about 13,000 women, men and children were forced to flee. According to reports, the pre-removal detention centre was evacuated the night of the fire. Since then pre-removal detention on the island has been suspended.