migrants have been considered at all, it has primarily been as sex workers or in
relation to their male partners (Lazos, 1997; Emke-Poulopoulou, 2001; Lazaridis,
2001). They have rarely been studied in their own right. So far, no academic
scholarship exists on their experiences of detention. This article starts to fill that gap.
The research on which this article is based is on going, part of a multi-site,
transnational research project (see also, Pickering, Fili and Bosworth, forthcoming).
Andriani Fili conducted all of the interviews onsite, while visiting the detention
centre, first as a research officer, and then as a member of staff of ‘Medical
Intervention’, an NGO offering social and medical support across a number of
detention facilities. Though the stories from Petrou Ralli, the Central Holding facility
for irregular migrants in Athens, belong to those who shared them, they resonate with
interviews and observations across similar facilities around the world (Bosworth,
2012; Bosworth and Kellezi, 2013; Grewcock, 2011; Hall, 2012).
As states
everywhere pursue border control ever more enthusiastically, it becomes increasingly
urgent to bear witness to the human costs of immigration detention and related
practices.
Immigration Detention and Border Control in Greece
Undocumented migrants can be detained for up to 18 months in Greece in a number
of locations, from border guard posts, police stations, at the airport, at the Athens
Holding centre, in purpose built detention centres, in ad hoc facilities pressed into
service, and, most recently, in new, so-called ‘closed hospitality centres.’3 Some,
3
Any expectations of hospitality disappear upon a visit to one of the new ‘closed hospitality centres’ in
Amygdaleza. It is composed of small mobile homes surrounded by high wire and situated in a remote
area outside of Athens. The location of the centre makes it particularly difficult for detainees to obtain
legal or medical aid; an outcome that appears to have been deliberate, as the young director of the
centre revealed: ‘we want to deport them and we are going to do it, so do not bother informing them
3