unlucky, individuals might be detained in all of these places, moved from one to another, whereas others languish for months in the same place. After release, nearly all remain vulnerable to further detention, since barely any are given the legal right to remain4. Most immigration detention centres in Greece were established without uniform standards and terms of operation. They are guarded by the police and funded by the Ministry of Interior through the Prefectures5. However, there is no statutorily defined public authority responsible for their management. As Amnesty International has commented the ‘lack of a Ministerial Decision regarding the framework for management and operation of the current centres causes most of the problems that have arisen in them’ (AI, 2010: 35), including the lack of activities, recreation and times outdoors (CPT, 2009). Each one is overcrowded. They are also dirty. Detainees find it difficult to access decent healthcare or legal advice. Women and men are often mixed, when they should be kept separate, and children are held alongside adults. Detainees frequently describe an alarming picture of mistreatment, overcrowding, and unsanitary conditions. ‘I can’t live in here. This is not a place for humans. This is a place for animals,’ Anwar from Somalia cried out in the Athens airport detention centre. ‘I can’t stay in here anymore. I’m going to hurt myself or someone else. I’m going crazy in here’. ‘Look at my clothes, look at me, this is not for us’. ‘I can’t shower here, the toilets are too dirty’. about what they need’. (See Johansen, 2013 for an account of a short-lived similarly named set of institutions in Norway and their role in enforcing deportation). 4 Greece has now stopped all regularization programmes for economic immigrants and accepted asylum applications, though having risen from 0.1 to 3 per cent recently, are very few compared to the number of requests. 5 The new government wants to pass legislation that will shift responsibility for immigration to the Ministry of Public Protection, i.e. the police will be responsible for the arrest, detention and welfare of immigrants and refugees in Greece. 4