The detention area of the Department has three cells, with nine, four and five sets of bunk beds, half without mattresses and bedding according to the CPT’s report following its visit in 2023. The size of the larger cell is 21 square metres and one of the smaller cells 12 square metres. The research institute Forensic Architecture constructed a visual representation of the Department’s building and two of the detention cells in 2020. In 2011, the reported detention capacity was 12 or 15 people.

In 2023, the CPT found the cells to be clean but the toilets ‘in a poor state of hygiene and cleanliness’. Up to 100 people were detained in the Border Guard Department for one night in August 2023 in severely overcrowded conditions. In 2020, the CPT described the sanitary facilities as unhygienic and ‘very dirty, with human faeces smeared on the floor in several of them’. The exercise yard and cells were described as ‘filthy’, and the foam mattresses in the latter as ‘old and stained’. Videos taken by detainees the same year show a visibly dirty cell with poor lighting. A detainee described the floor as ‘full of toilet sewage’, forcing detainees to sit on the bunk beds. Similar unhygienic conditions and overcrowding were reported in previous visits by the CPT. In 2011, the National Commission for Human Rights and the Greek Ombudsman found that cells had no beds, while they also lacked showers, heating and natural light.

Families and children have been detained in the Orestiada Border Guard Department for short periods as recently as 2023.

Expenses for its operation have been covered by EU funding programmes such as the External Borders Fund and the Internal Security Fund. Expenses related to detention such as cleaning materials and food for detainees are covered through the Greek national budget.