ity responsible for migration control and border management, and was
formally designated a Centre for the First Management of Illegal Immigration, similar to the more well-known First Reception Centre in Fylakio, in
North Evros. The refurbishment and expansion of the old facilities and
purchase of necessary equipment were financed through the External
borders fund of the European Union (Alexandroupoli Police Directorate,
2011). Visits by the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia
Malmström (To Vima, 2012), the then executive director of Frontex, Ilkka
Laitinen (Ministry for Public Order and Citizen Protection, 2013b), and a
delegation of the LIBE committee of the European Parliament (2012) illustrated the embeddedness of the centre in the European border regime.
The Commission’s report on the implementation of the Greek National Action Plan on Migration Management and Asylum Reform specifically refers
the Poros centre as a facility that could be used for screening procedures
and vulnerability assessments (European Commission, 2012).
Figure 2: Location of Poros facility relative to the border (source: openstreetmap.org)
The Poros facility was indeed used as a screening and identification
centre, activities that fell under both border management and the Greek
framework for reception procedures introduced in 2011. While official
documents of the Greek Government suggest that the centre started operating in 2012 (Council of Europe, 2012), a media article (Alexandroupoli
Online, 2011) and a report by the European Centre for Disease Prevention
3