the island of Farmakonisi led to the deaths of 12 refugees (ECRE 2014). The incident occurred amidst a wave of criticism prompted by allegations of systematic pushbacks of Syrian asylum seekers across the Turkish border. Victims of pushbacks described being slapped and beaten. There were also allegations that the coastguard damaged boats or confiscated motors before leaving the migrants in the middle of the Aegean Sea or the Evros River (Pro Asyl 2013; AI 2013a; GCR and PRO ASYL 2012). Frontex has been present in Greece throughout much of this period as its Joint Operations Poseidon Land and Poseidon Sea have been ongoing (Frontex 2014). Greece has also stepped up internal enforcement measures. In August 2012, authorities launched operation “Xenios Zeus” aimed at rounding up irregular migrants in Attica, Evros, and Patras. By the end of December 2012, 65,767 people had been apprehended as part of this operation, only 6 percent of whom were found not to have residence permits. Various human rights bodies have condemned these police operations for being based on racial profiling (Kathimerini 2013a). Greece has experienced a wave of racism, which was underscored during the June 2012 parliamentary elections, when the far-right, antiimmigrant Golden Dawn party won 18 seats. The Racist Violence Recording Network recorded more than 150 racist attacks against non-citizens in 2012 (Racist Violence Recording Network 2013). Anti-foreigner sentiment has been compounded by a climate of impunity as police efforts to curb violence often fail to lead to arrests while victims of attacks end up in detention if they are revealed to have an irregular status (AI 2012). The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants (SRHRM) and the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) have urged the country to do more to combat racially-based violence and enable migrants to report these crimes without risking detention and deportation (SRHRM 2013; CAT 2012). Immigration detention in Greece has also attracted broad international condemnation, even as the country’s detention efforts have received large injections of funding from the European Union. Four UN Special Procedures have raised concerns about the legality and conditions of detention in the country (SRHRM 2013; SRT 2011; SRSC 2006; WGAD 2013). In addition, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in a dozen cases that detention conditions in Greece amount to degrading treatment (ECtHR 2014). In January 2013, PACE adopted a resolution expressly on Greece that highlighted problems with its immigration detention practices. The resolution stated that the country was “failing badly to respect the human rights and dignity of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees.” PACE called on Greece to “review its policies in relation to detention of irregular migrants and asylum seekers, in particular by: refraining from automatic recourse to detention and exploring alternatives to detention …; significantly reducing periods of detention and distinguishing between asylum seekers and irregular migrants; ensuring that unaccompanied children are never detained and that other children, women and other vulnerable groups are detained only in exceptional circumstances; ensuring that unsuitable detention facilities are closed and conditions of detention are significantly improved as soon as possible; considerably improve their access to medical care, communication and translation facilities and proper information on their rights” (PACE 2013a). 4