- 32 ii. material conditions 64. The Mytilini Pagani Centre has been described in previous reports45 and has a capacity for approximately 300 irregular migrants. However, it is usually overcrowded during the summer months; for example, in the month of September 2009 its occupancy level fluctuated between 461 and 700 persons. At the time of the visit, the centre was accommodating 578 irregular migrants. Once again this Centre was operating far beyond its infrastructural capabilities, resulting in a shortage of even the most basic facilities and amenities, such as toilets, showers, beds and mattresses. The Centre was filthy beyond description and the detention conditions for some, if not all, of the irregular migrants could easily be described as inhuman and degrading. For instance, on the day of the visit, 141 women, babies and children were being held together in a room with waste water seeping onto the mattresses, only one small electric water heater available, windows lacking panes, insufficient provision of blankets and a single functioning toilet. The situation was made worse by a lack of access to outdoor exercise; some migrants claimed that they were only allowed outdoors for a weekly head count. In the report on the 2008 visit, the CPT had stated that the conditions at Pagani were “abominable”46 and called for immediate emergency measures; regrettably, no efforts had been made to improve the situation by the time of the 2009 visit. However, by letter of 26 February 2010 the CPT was informed by the Greek authorities that the Pagani facility had been closed down and that it would be replaced with more appropriate accommodation. Apparently, irregular immigrants arriving on Lesbos are currently transferred to other centres, such as the one in Samos, until such time as the new facility is opened. 65. The Athens Airport Centre, visited previously by the CPT in 200547 was divided into three distinct units: one unit of nine “single-occupancy” cells for male irregular migrants48, a unit with three dormitories for families and single women and a unit with three rooms for male asylum seekers (several of whom had been returned to Greece under the Dublin II Regulation).49 At the time of the visit, the units for male irregular migrants and for male asylum seekers were severely overcrowded: the nine single occupancy cells (each 9m²) were in fact holding a total 69 persons50 and the unit for male asylum seekers, with 10 beds, was accommodating 18 persons. Many detained persons had to sleep on mattresses, or just blankets, placed directly on the floor. 45 46 47 48 49 50 See CPT/ Inf (2006) 41, paragraphs 60, 63 and 64; CPT/ Inf (2008) 3, paragraph 31; CPT/ Inf (2009) 20, paragraph 40. See CPT/ Inf (2009) 20, paragraph 40. See CPT/Inf (2006) 41, paragraph 30. The majority of these migrants were detained for attempting to leave the country with false travel documents. According to the commander of the Airport detention facility, persons who had demanded asylum upon entry into Greece would be detained up to four weeks in the facility. However, an asylum seeker returned under the Dublin II Regulation would be transferred to Petrou Ralli Alien Holding facility after a few days, where he/she, before being released, would be interviewed by one of five Special Committees. Not including the 22 irregular migrants accommodated in this unit who were at court at the time of the visit.