migrants for three months, apart from Afghanis and Somalis who were detained for two weeks; reflecting their undeportability due to the turbulent situation in their countries. A similar practice was observed on Lesvos; Afghans were detained for a couple of days while the rest were held for 30 days (Pro Asyl, 2007). Many were to be released to seek asylum outside of detention in the community under the shadow of the risk of re-detention and in a challenging legal setting that made seeking asylum a complex process. This often involved waiting in lines outside the Petrou Ralli Central Asylum department in Athens,43 where 94 per cent of all asylum applications were lodged, often risking their lives.44 For example, Karl Kopp (2008) explains that in 2007 the Greek police, which was responsible for registering and processing asylum claims, set up a special system, according to which asylum seekers had to queue up on Sundays to get an appointment for the following week. Usually more than 1,000 people would wait, for less than 300 to be randomly selected. Handing the responsibility of the country’s asylum system to an inexperienced and untrained police force made arbitrariness the norm rather than the exception. As a lawyer with experience in the police-run asylum system explained to me ‘The first police officers, who were transferred to the asylum service had no experience whatsoever, they didn’t even know how to write a decision.’ (Interview, Athens, 2018) But even the ones, who wanted to hand positive decisions on asylum claims were not allowed to do so. The same informant confirmed that ‘the decisions were checked by higher officials and were changed’; thus, accounting for Greece’s extremely low rates of refugee recognition rates. Heath Cabot (2014), in her enlightening ethnography of the regime of political asylum in Greece, further documents the ‘overwhelming frustrations and delegitimizing effects’ of the legal limbo that foreigners found themselves in (2014, p. 58).45 Drawing on evidence from the Ministry of Public Order and Citizen Protection46 and the UNHCR, she writes that while Greece, beginning in 2004, had one of the fastest rising rates of asylum application in Europe, the number of positive decisions was 0.3% in 2004 and 0.6% in The Petrou Ralli Central Asylum department in Athens where asylum applications were lodged was also the home of the Petrou Ralli detention centre, which opened its gates in 2005. 44 Heath Cabot (2012; 2014) when researching the asylum system in Greece, she spent a morning outside the Petrou Ralli offices and witnessed the violence of the police officers towards the immigrants waiting to be registered. Kopp (2008) also refers to similar violent incidents, including the death of a Pakistani man (Symmahia Stamatiste ton Polemo, 2008 [in Greek]). 45 For an analysis of Greece’s asylum system until 2010 you can also see Skordas and Sitaropoulos (2004), Amnesty International (2008), Human Rights Watch (2008) and Amnesty International (2010). 46 For statistics on asylum applications, you can visit the website of the Greek police http://www.astynomia.gr/index.php?option=ozo_content&perform=view&id=2085&Itemid=429&lang= 43 78