FRONTIER EUROPE Human rights abuses on Greece’s border with Turkey 19 Immigration Detention Centre (near Athens) and various detention facilities in the Evros region police released detainees who have not lodged an asylum application sooner than those of the same nationality with asylum applications. This practice had contributed to the belief among detainees that they might be held longer if they apply for asylum and resulted in some of them withdrawing their asylum applications. Greece established a civilian body, the New Asylum Service, in 2011 to receive and assess first instance asylum claims.46 However, this new service did not begin operating until 7 June 2013. According to the information provided by the Director of the Asylum Service, the service will currently only receive applications through its Regional Office in Attica. Detainees elsewhere in the country will have to be transferred to detention facilities in Attica region in order to submit their asylum applications. A mobile unit is expected to start receiving applications from Fylakio Initial Reception and Immigration Detention Centres in June, and a Regional Office in Alexandroupolis is expected to open in the coming months to cater to the regions of Evros, Rodopi and Xanthi.47 However it remains to be seen how those wishing to seek asylum in other facilities will be transferred to Attica until these expected changes take place. 5.1 DETENTION CONDITIONS “If you die here, no one would know.” Somali man detained in Feres Border Guard Station in the Evros region. Refugees and migrants who are apprehended for their irregular stay in the country or after irregularly entering Greece end up being detained, if not immediately returned to Turkey. Detention conditions and the lack of procedural safeguards surrounding detention in Greece have been regularly criticized by human rights organisations48 as well as the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment (CPT)49 and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).50 Most recently, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants described the conditions in eleven detention facilities he visited in Greece between 25 November and 2 December 2012 as “inappropriate” pointing out in some facilities limited access to fresh air, lack of leisure activities, limited access to toilets, lack of artificial lighting, lack of heating and hot water, and complaints concerning “insufficient amounts and poor quality of food, lack of soap and other hygiene products, as well as insufficient clothing, shoes and blankets.”51 In April 2013, Amnesty International visited three detention centres (Komotini and Fylakio Immigration Detention Centers and the Fylakio Initial Reception Centre 52), four border guard stations (Metaxades53, Tychero, Soufli, Feres), and a police station (Iasmos) in the Evros region and the neighbouring Rodopi Prefecture. Some of those detained in these facilities had been apprehended shortly after their arrival in Greece, but many were arrested during sweep operations carried out by the Greek police in urban areas. Amnesty researchers also visited the Mytilini Police Station on the island of Lesvos where those who had newly arrived through the Aegean route were being held. Some of the detention facilities visited (Iasmos, Mytilini and Tychero) lacked any outside space for fresh air and exercise. Although the authorities agreed that these cells were designed to hold people overnight, those detained – mostly young men, but also some women and even unaccompanied children – often spend months there because of lack of space in Index: 25/008/2013 Amnesty International July 2013