GREECE IRREGULAR MIGRANTS AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS ROUTINELY DETAINED IN SUBSTANDARD CONDITIONS 35 Decision No. 4000/4/46−A determining the details for the execution of judicial and administrative deportation orders. Article 13(4) of PD 90/2008 states that women asylumseekers should be detained separately from men, that the authorities should refrain from detaining children and pregnant women seeking asylum, and that adequate medical care should be provided to detained asylum-seekers.120 Article 5(2) of the Joint Ministerial Decision stipulates that “… minors and women are detained in separate areas unless grounds for the protection of minors or for the continuation of family unity require different treatment”. Article 5(2) also allows for the temporary detention of aliens against whom a deportation order has been issued in police station cells if there is a lack of “special facilities for hosting foreigners”. Standards regarding detention conditions of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers can also be found in Protocol Regulation 4803/22/44 on the treatment and the rights of persons detained by police authorities of July 2003.121 Standards also exist in the Greek Correctional Code (Law 2776/1999) which applies to individuals held in prison facilities. 122 However, the latter standards seem to apply only for irregular migrants and asylum-seekers issued with a judicial deportation order.123 5.1. IMMIGRATION DETENTION CENTRES AND OTHER HOLDING FACILITIES Asylum-seekers and irregular migrants facing deportation can be held at immigration detention centres. The terms generally used by the Greek authorities to describe these centres are “special areas for hosting foreigners” or “special facilities for aliens” (Article 81(1) of Law 3386/2005). So-called “special facilities” exist at the country’s points of entry such as Evros (Fylakio), Rodopi (Venna), Attika (Amygdaleza) and the islands of Samos (Vathi) and Chios (Mersinidiou). Irregular migrants and asylum-seekers are also detained at holding facilities at Attika and Thessaloniki Aliens’ Police Directorates.124 Following a visit of the Deputy Minister of Citizens’ Protection in October 2009, Pagani immigration detention centre was temporarily closed on 6 November 2009.125 The Deputy Minister himself deplored the conditions of detention.126 There is a lack of clarity surrounding the status of the existing immigration detention centres, since the majority, if not all of them, have been established and operate without the adoption of a Joint Ministerial Decision as required by Article 81 (1) of Law 3386/2005.127 The existing centres are guarded by the police and funded by the Ministry of Interior through the Prefectures, but there is no public authority defined in law which is responsible for their management.128 The absence of a Ministerial Decision has also resulted in the lack of standards and terms of operation for the existing immigration detention centres.129 In its 2009 Report on Greece, the CPT underlined the urgent necessity “…to adopt such standards, guaranteeing a diversified regime, with activities and recreation, including the possibility of one hour of outside exercise”. 130 The Working Group on screening centres has pointed out that the lack of a Ministerial Decision regarding the framework for management and operation of the current centres causes most of the problems that have arisen in them. Thus, the Working Group has proposed that the framework for the operation of the proposed centres and the authorities responsible for the management of immigration detention and planned screening centres be proscribed explicitly in law. In the past year, Amnesty International has visited various immigration detention centres. Index: EUR 25/002/2010 Amnesty International July 2010