GREECE IRREGULAR MIGRANTS AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS ROUTINELY DETAINED IN SUBSTANDARD CONDITIONS 9 Following his visit to Greece in February 2010, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights wrote to the Minister of Citizens’ Protection on 10 March 2010, reiterating his position that the detention of migrants should in principle be avoided.16 He drew the government’s attention to the judgments outlined above, and called for the adoption of further measures to guarantee the full conformity of practices concerning the detention of migrants with Council of Europe standards and ECtHR case law. At the end of 2009, the Greek government acknowledged a number of problems in the asylum system and in immigration detention facilities, and announced that changes were needed in both areas. As a result, it set up a Committee of Experts to draw up proposals for reform of the asylum system. The Committee completed its work in December 2009.17 Its proposals included removing asylum decision-making powers from the remit of the police, and establishing an independent Asylum Service staffed with specialized personnel to examine asylum applications in the first instance together with an independent Commission of Appeals with decision-making authority to examine appeals against negative decisions at first instance.18 In December 2009, the Deputy Minister of Citizens’ Protection established a Working Group to submit a proposal for the establishment and management of centres on the initial reception and identification (“screening centres”) of migrants and asylum-seekers entering the country irregularly. The Working Group presented a summary of its proposals on 14 April 2010, and the Ministry of Citizens’ Protection undertook to promptly turn the proposals into legislation.19 The proposed system is meant to act in tandem with reforms in the asylum determination procedure. According to the Working Group’s proposals, screening centres should be established at the country’s points of entry, including cities with an airport or seaport, where there are large concentrations of refugees and migrants. Anyone arriving irregularly into the country will be sent to one of these screening centres. According to the proposal, the centres will allow those in need of international protection, vulnerable groups, such as victims of torture and trafficking, and unaccompanied children, to be registered and identified, and given the opportunity to apply for asylum. Identification of nationality and determination of age will take place at the centres where these are uncertain, and medical and social protection services will be provided. The proposals provide for six general and two special procedures to take place, and stipulate time limits for such procedures.20 Following completion of these procedures, it is proposed that asylum-seekers, groups in need of special protection and unaccompanied children should be referred to reception facilities outside the screening centres, while irregular migrants whose deportation is feasible will be transferred to immigration detention centres in the interior of the country, and detained there pending their deportation. The screening centres will be guarded externally by police, and irregular migrants and asylum-seekers will be allowed to move freely inside the centre. The maximum time limit for detention at the screening centres will be 15 days, extended only in exceptional circumstances. There is also a recommendation to establish a committee to evaluate the operation of each screening centre consisting of representatives of local authorities, state local authorities, NGOs or groups of citizens active in the rights of migrants and refugees. Index: EUR 25/002/2010 Amnesty International July 2010