Greece uncritically legitimised the status quo of detention and further confounded the relationship between the NGO sector and the authorities, in particular the police. NGO Arogos was forced to cease its in-detention programmes in 2013, due to lack of available funding and with the excuse that these services were now covered by the Ministry. In terms of medical services, in 2013, the Ministry of Public Order and Citizen Protection awarded the healthcare provision of detainees to the National Centre for Healthcare Management (EKEPY) through KEELPNO (Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention); at the same time as they severely restricted the provision of psycho-social and legal aid, which were never regarded as necessary anyway. In 2017, the responsibility for the provision of medical services in pre-removal detention centres was transferred to the Ministry of Health, and in particular to the Health Unit SA (Ανώνυμη Εταιρεία Μονάδων Υγείας), a public limited company under the supervision of Ministry of Health. AEMY’S previous experience included managing two clinics that offer primary healthcare and one hospital on a Greek island. On its website AEMY, states that the operation of hospitality centres (i.e., detention centres) is the most appropriate way to reduce and gradually eliminate the impact of thousands of foreigners living in the country; hence, unashamedly adopting the government rhetoric that detention centres are in fact protecting Greek citizens from freely-roaming immigrants in their cities. Therefore, according to their statement of aims, the provision of a serious, scientific and humanely appropriate programme to deal with the problem is mandated by security and hygiene matters and in the interests of preserving normality. Unsurprisingly, services in detention are yet to be fully staffed 116 and have not been evaluated or monitored in any meaningful way.117 For the latest official statistics see here: Coverage as of February 2020: doctors (22,22%), nurses (57,50%), health visitors (37,50%), administrators (63,64%), psychiatrists (12,50%), psychologists (80%), social workers (70%), interpreters (19,23%). Asylum Information Database (2021). 116 117 I made repeated attempts to interview them but they did not respond to my calls or emails. 175