14 authorities resulted in the unlawful and observations of Equal Rights staff, who arbitrary detention of asylum seekers. observed an increase in police patrols in the city 3. Detention of Registered Asylum Seekers Accused of Low-Level Crimes During this reporting period, Equal Rights also observed a new detention trend: the detention of asylum seekers who were initially accommodated in the CCAC and later accused of Pyli, the city in which the CCAC and PRDC are located. Along with the increased police patrols, Equal Rights staff observed and were informed by clients that clients were subject to random searches, which would often include demands for asylum seekers to empty their pockets or be subject to body searches. of or charged with low-level criminal offences, For example, Yaseen was approached by the such as possessing small amounts of marijuana police on his way back from a grocery store to or other controlled substances. Specifically, the CCAC, who asked if they could search him. Equal Rights represented six clients — all Yaseen consented to the police search as he Palestinian men — who were detained in the explained he did not have anything to hide, but PRDC under this scheme. All six individuals the police handcuffed him when another were initially accommodated in the CCAC after asylum seeker he did not know started to run registering for asylum and only moved to the away from the police. After the police PRDC after they were accused of committing discovered the other individual was carrying low-level criminal offences. marijuana, Yaseen was taken to the local police The fact patterns of these six stories generally followed the same trend. The individuals were approached by the police either outside or inside the CCAC, accused of committing a lowlevel crime, detained in the local police station in Kos town for a period of time, released and tasked with finding their own way back to the CCAC (resulting in many sleeping outside overnight), before reaching the CCAC and returning to their old accommodation. After a short period of the time — ranging from a few hours to a couple of days — the individuals were then transferred to the PRDC without station, where they detained and investigated him. After their questioning ceased, Yaseen explained, “I signed papers, and they said I was free.” After returning to the CCAC at night, Yaseen said then, “I was woken up by a police officer who said ‘Gather your things, and come with us.’ He made me sign a paper in Arabic. I signed it, and they took me to the detention centre.” Yaseen emphasized that there was no interpreter when he signed the paper, and no one explained to him why he was detained in the PRDC. No official charges had been brought against him at this time. being provided with an explanation as to why. In Maher’s case, the police searched him while In all but one case, official charges had not been he was in town and found that he was carrying brought against the individual during the time unmarked pills. Before he was taken to the of representation.24 police station, Maher explained he was first The emergence of these cases aligned with 24 taken to first reception within the CCAC, where an employee checked his asylum seeker’s card. Equal Rights had taken over the legal representation of the clients for their detention cases, which were connected to the existence of an ongoing criminal procedure. ‘Still detained and forgotten’ – Update on Detention Policies, Practices, and Conditions on Kos 2023/24