Chapter 5. The climate of fear: Secrets, silences and complicities between state and non-state actors ‘The question is…what would happen if we were not there’, Greek NGO practitioner (Interview, 2018) Introduction The pre-removal centre of Amygdaleza, opened its doors on 28 April 2012, a few days after the Greek government had announced its intention to hold national elections later in June. Located inside the premises of the police academy in the northern suburb of Athens, Thrakomakedones, the centre was surrounded by a wired fence and equipped with 250 shipping containers divided along 3 sections. Amygdaleza was designed to host 2,000 detainees in ‘exemplary’ facilities. While conditions inside the centre were better than those at other of the country’s substandard facilities, this did not render Amygdaleza exemplary in any way (Landscapes of Border Control, n.d.; Angeli and Triandafyllidou, 2014). When the centre opened, amidst fervent opposition from the local mayor, who feared further degradation of their already deprived and desolate borough, people who were transferred there were the result of massive sweep operations in the centre of Athens. The then Minister of Citizen Protection, Mr Chrisohoidis had organised a police operation to evacuate overcrowded buildings in the centre of Athens in order to populate the centre. He even appealed to Greek residents of the city centre to report to the police cases of overcrowded apartments, announcing that property owners would be prosecuted, adding that the detention centre would address the humanitarian crisis in the centre of Athens and decrease criminality (Ta Nea, 2012; To Vima, 2012). ‘This is a health bomb’, he said referring to the overconcentration of migrants in rundown buildings in the city centre, adding that ‘there is no room for delays and time-wasting. Our social peace and public health are in danger’ (Naftemporiki, 2012c). As Alison Mountz and Nancy Hiemstra (2014) point out ‘crises’ are political phenomena that are able mobilise fear and uncertainty and a discourse of emergency among citizens of a polis. The composition of the detainee population indicates the state’s concerns. The majority of those detained were of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin. Most of them had been living and working in Greece for many years and were arrested for failing to show proof of identity. The hasty opening of the centre, designed to send a message to Greek citizens that the ‘government can and must function even before the elections’ (Ta Nea, 2012), 151