Unmet needs of vulnerable groups and individuals In accordance with national legislation, responsible authorities should avoid detaining asylum seekers who are minors, especially unaccompanied minors, women in advanced pregnancy and nursing mothers. Furthermore, the responsible authorities are obliged by law to refer victims of torture, rape and serious violence to specialised services for support and treatment.54 In Greece, vulnerable groups and persons are systematically detained. There is no screening mechanism or relevant expertise available in detention centers and thus vulnerable individuals such as torture or trafficking victims are not likely to be identified. In the absence of systematic medical screening, persons with medical concerns such as chronic patients or persons with disabilities might go unnoticed unless they actively seek medical help. Moreover provisions to meet the needs of vulnerable groups in terms of accommodation are not in place. Pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children According to the UNHCR guidelines on applicable Criteria and Standards relating to the Detention of Asylum Seekers, “As a general rule the detention of pregnant women in their final months and nursing mothers, both of whom have special needs, should be avoided.”55 However in the detention centers where MSF worked, and especially in Pagani, several pregnant women in their last weeks of pregnancy were detained in inhumane living conditions in overcrowded cells. In addition to suffering from the emotional and psychological impact of detention these women were not routinely checked by a doctor. Not knowing where they would give birth and what would then happen to them and their newborns further increased their anxiety. At the end of August a woman who was detained in Pagani detention center with her two older children was extremely upset because she was past her due days. She had no way to communicate with the police personnel or the doctor and was refusing to go back into the cell after being out in the yard. A Somali man in his mid forties, whose wife gave birth in the last days of August 2009 was extremely upset, saying, “If my wife comes here with our newborn baby I want to die. Where is she going to sleep, on those dirty mattresses? They will get sick. We will all die in here.” © MSF 23 Families with children are given priority by the police to be released. In practice, however, families often had to stay in detention for several days – sometimes even weeks – before their release papers would be processed. As a result infants and children were detained in unacceptable conditions, in the same cells as adults. In general children under the age of 12 are detained with their mother in the cells for female migrants. Sometimes if the children are travelling only with their father they are detained with him in the same cell as adult males. In Pagani detention center, especially during the months of August and September 2009, hundreds of young children - the majority of them under the age of five - were detained for periods of up to six weeks. During that time the only preferential treatment compared to adults was that the children were more frequently allowed outside in the yard. Otherwise they faced the same inhumane conditions and lack of medical care as described in previous sections of the report. Furthermore, they did not have access to toys or recreational activities. Thus MSF teams placed emphasis on organizing recreational activities for children.