GREECE IRREGULAR MIGRANTS AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS ROUTINELY DETAINED IN SUBSTANDARD CONDITIONS 27 A. told Amnesty International that on 12 January 2010, police transferred him along with nine other Afghan individuals from Samos immigration detention centre to the police station in the town of Vathi. A. said that, after two days in detention at Vathi police station, an Afghan interpreter appeared and gave each of them a document in Greek to sign, which he said was required for them to be released. The interpreter also provided them with a second document in Greek, which they also signed without understanding its content. On 14 January, the 10 irregular migrants along with six asylum-seekers were transferred by boat to Athens. Upon arrival there, the two groups were separated. The six asylum-seekers were detained at Elliniko holding facility for irregular migrants (Athens) while the 10 Afghan irregular migrants were detained at Omonoia police station (Athens). A. told Amnesty International that no police officer at the station informed them of the grounds for their detention, and that they had no phonecards or money to buy any, nor knowledge of who to call for assistance. A. said that the cells at the station were dirty, and that they felt cold because they were each given only one thin blanket. A. told Amnesty International that, after four days at Omonoia police station, his group was transferred by bus to the holding facility of Thessaloniki Aliens’ Police Directorate where they stayed for a night. The next day the group was transferred to the Venna immigration detention centre. After a day at Venna, the police authorities allegedly transferred them to the Turkish border and handed A. and the other nine Afghan migrants to the Turkish authorities under the Readmission Protocol with Turkey. A. told Amnesty International that they were asked by the Turkish authorities at the border whether they were Afghans; when they said that they were Afghans, the authorities returned them to the Greek border the same day. The Greek border authorities again transferred them to Venna immigration detention for irregular migrants where, according to A. they remained for 21 more days. A. said that the group was released after one of them suffered a suspected heart attack. The official notice given to them, issued in Greek, requested that they leave the country within 30 days. In addition, during 2009 and 2010, Amnesty International has received several reports that groups of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers transferred from immigration detention centres on the islands, such as Samos and Chios, to other areas of Greece were given no information about either the grounds for or destination of their transfer.95 3.6.2. IRREGULARITIES UPON RELEASE A cause for concern is the practice of some police authorities at the country’s points of entry to predate police notices given to irregular migrants released from administrative detention. As a result, those released have much less time to leave the country after their actual release than the 30-day period prescribed in the police notice. For example, the police notices of some of the migrants released from the Pagani detention centre on 27 August 2009 were dated several days earlier than their actual release. One police notice was dated as early as 8 August 2009. 96 3.6.3. IRREGULARITIES IN THE HANDLING OF ASYLUM-APPLICATIONS Article 6(5) of the Asylum Procedures Directive provides that “Member States shall ensure that authorities likely to be addressed by someone who wishes to make an application for asylum are able to advise that person how and where he/she may make such application and/or may require these authorities to forward the application to the competent authority”. Index: EUR 25/002/2010 Amnesty International July 2010