The Special Detention Facility of Serres is located on a site which has been operating since 2020 as a Controlled Access Facility for the Temporary Accommodation of Asylum Seekers (CAFTAA), including for Ukrainian asylum seekers. The facility is located in the Regional Unit of Serres, northern Greece, in a mountainous region close to the Struma river and 6km from the Bulgarian border. The geographical position of the detention facility renders it vulnerable to flooding, landslides, and extreme temperatures, which the camp infrastructure is not prepared for.

In July 2025, following a legal amendment which suspended the right to access the asylum procedure for those arriving by sea from North Africa, part of the pre-existing CAFTAA facility was converted into a closed detention centre to create additional capacity in Greece’s detention system. According to the Greek Ombudsman the Detention Facility started operating on 29th July 2025. Many people arriving by boat to the islands of Gavdos and Crete were transferred some 1000km north to the newly established Serres Special Detention Facility, located in a remote mountainous region far from towns and services. This indiscriminate and automatic detention of newly arrived third country nationals contravened Greek and EU law according to NGOs including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Following the conversion of part of the CAFTAA to a Detention Facility, Greek police expanded the security infrastructure, enhancing the prison-like conditions. According to testimonies police patrol the facility using an internal road which runs between two high perimeter barbed wire fences lined with security cameras. Exit and entry is controlled through a security gate. Police issued a decision in late 2025 to expand the security infrastructure of the facility by installing four police cabins. According to information provided by the Ministry of Citizen Protection dated August 2025, the Special Detention Facility was allocated 35 police officers, 110 border guards, six Road/Track vehicles and one bus for personnel movement.

As reported by Refugee Support Aegean, during the suspension period, the facility was overcrowded, with over 900 people detained despite the actual capacity of the overall structure being approximately 733 at the time. The Greek Ombudsman stated in a letter to the authorities that in mid-September 2025 that there were 800 still detained in the Serres Special Detention Facility, from an initial 973 people transferred (some of which were subsequently transferred to other camps due to being part of vulnerable groups). Despite the lifting of the asylum ban in October 2025 people continued to be detained in the Serres Special Detention Facility, in some cases for 10 or 11 months as of June 2026. Still in November 2025, media reported continued overcrowded conditions with 750 people detained there. Many detained people reported receiving papers progressively prolonging their detention by 50 days at a time, including some individuals with chronic medical conditions. Egyptians in particular experienced longer detention following the lifting of the ban, while individuals of other nationalities were transferred to open camps.

Photographs of the camp show cramped and dense conditions with very limited outdoor space. The facility is divided into four compounds divided by high wire fences, accommodating different nationalities, including women, who reportedly have their own containers and separate bathrooms. Minors have also been detained there. Each 20 square metre container reportedly accommodates between eight and 15 people, but at times up to 25 people have been held in one container.

Detainees report repression by police in the Special Detention Facility and restricted access to services such as healthcare. Degrading and inhumane conditions have been widely documented by NGOs, media and solidarity groups in contact with people inside. Undignified living conditions are reported including insufficient food provision, lack of hot water for showering and no provision of personal hygiene items or clothes. One interviewee reported feeling like he and other detainees were being “treated like animals inside a zoo”.

According to information published in an open letter from the Greek Ombudsman, the operational needs of the Special Detention Facility, including provision of food and bedding, should be covered by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. Many interviewees described the food as being of poor quality and in meagre portions, and therefore having to make use of their own financial means to buy essential goods. A market visiting the facility reportedly offers products at inflated prices which are unaffordable to most inside, leading to detained people relying on those with permission to leave the facility to purchase cheaper products from outside, although this practice has reportedly been prohibited by the police. One testimony respondent reported that police have at times accepted bribes from detainees in order to bring necessary items from outside. In testimonies detained people reported that the Detention Facility has only three cold-water outdoor showers – used year-round including during the winter months – and between four or five working toilets for several hundred people, leading to long queues and tensions between detainees. People held in the facility reported unsanitary hygienic conditions affecting both their mental and physical health. This included a lack of air ventilation and cleaning products to sanitise the spaces, an often-insufficient quantity of beds forcing people to sleep on the floor and the provision of thin blankets unsuitable to keep people warm on cold nights. Some also reported never receiving clothing or shoes upon arrival and still wearing the same clothes they departed in from Libya, as well as finding insects and snakes in their accommodation containers.

Since it began operating, the Serres Special Detention Facility has seen multiple protests by those detained in response to their long-term detention, denial of access to the asylum procedure and degrading living conditions. These protests have consistently been met with violent police repression. Efsyn newspaper reported that on 12th August 2025, violent fights broke out between Sudanese and Egyptian nationals detained in the facility. One person suffered a head injury and was brought to the hospital in Serres. On 18th August six detainees reportedly attempted to escape from the facility, but were soon after apprehended by the police, arrested and sentenced to six months in Nigrita prison. Detainees’ testimonies revealed retaliation from police officers operating in the facility, who physically abused one of the detainees involved in the attempted escape. On 19th August, around 260 people held in the facility initiated a peaceful protest and hunger strike in solidarity with those arrested, as well as to denounce their general situation. In September 2025, additional police staff including border guards from the Evros Prefecture, were transferred to Sintiki to support the police on site. People detained in the facility further reported during testimony interviews that violent repression of two protests involving approximately 40 detainees occurred in autumn 2025 and February 2026, with officers deploying tear gas in both instances and resorting to physical violence during the autumn’s episode. The latter was also documented in a video posted on social media. Another protest, which received extensive media coverage, occurred in November 2025. Reportedly, 30 people were arrested after attempting to take down the perimeter fences and setting clothes on fire, and two police officers sustained injuries. According to reports, those who participated in the uprising will face up to three years and seven months of imprisonment and possible deportation. A hunger strike was undertaken at the beginning of April 2026 but was reportedly cut short by the facility’s authorities through electricity and water cuts, as well as threats to call on police troops to silence those who raised their voice. A hunger strike was initiated on 11 May 2026 by detainees with similar demands.

Local authorities have called for the closure or conversion of the entire Sintiki facility into a closed centre, suggesting that free movement of asylum seekers in the area represents a security threat to local populations. Attempts by people to escape the facility have also resulted in calls from local police for further securitisation of the facility.