- 12 3. Fundamental safeguards against ill-treatment 19. The CPT reiterates that it attaches particular importance to the safeguards against illtreatment which are offered to persons deprived of their liberty by the police, in particular the rights of detained persons to inform a close relative or another third party of their situation, to have access to a lawyer, and to have access to a doctor. As the Committee has repeatedly stressed, these are fundamental rights, which should be enjoyed by all categories of persons from the very outset of their deprivation of their liberty (that is, from the moment when the persons concerned are obliged to remain with the police). 20. Once again, the findings of the CPT indicate that in Greece these rights are not always respected in practice; no noticeable developments have occurred since the previous CPT visit to Greece. Many detainees complained that they were not allowed to contact their lawyer as from the outset of detention and similar complaints were received with respect to the right to inform a close relative or another third party of their situation. Further, many detained persons met by the delegation complained that they were not informed about their rights in a language they could understand. The CPT calls upon the Greek authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that all persons deprived of their liberty by law enforcement officials have an effective right to notify a close relative or third party of their choice of their situation, and to have access to a lawyer, and are informed about these rights in an appropriate language, as from the very outset of their deprivation of liberty. 21. In all the facilities for the detention of irregular migrants visited by the CPT’s delegation, mobile phones, including those on which relevant telephone numbers were stored, were systematically taken away by the authorities. Consequently, contacting a lawyer or a close relative had been made practically impossible. The CPT wishes to recall that the persons concerned were neither convicted nor suspected of a criminal offence. Bearing this in mind, the CPT invites the authorities to reconsider their policy of systematically confiscating the mobile phones of detained irregular migrants. 22. With respect to custodial records, as was the case during the 2007 visit, the persons mentioned in the detention registers in the Border Guard stations in the Alexandroupoli and Orestiada prefectures did not correspond with the persons actually held in the detention facilities of these stations. The CPT reiterates its recommendation that the Greek authorities take immediate steps to ensure that individualised custody records are kept at the location where the persons concerned are detained.