6. Detention and detention centres outside. I felt as if we ›insiders‹ were seen and treated as criminals.«118 S.A. from Iran was detained with her parents in Tychero. »In the beginning, we were detained together in Tychero: Me, my mother, my father and my cousin. Then the police came one day and took my father and my cousin. They said that they took them just for signing a paper, and then they will be brought back. Instead they brought them to Venna where they stayed for 13 days. Four days after they had taken them away from us, my mother and me were brought to Feres. Only after we spoke to a GCR-lawyer in Feres my father was sent to us. Then we were brought back to Tychero. My cousin is still in Venna. They separated all the families. There were brothers and sisters separated, and families like ours, women from their husbands … Nobody explained to us why. Some of the men in our cell were with their sisters in the beginning. Following their separation and the transfers, the sisters were finally released alone. Their brothers stayed. I don’t understand this.«119 6.5. Other Detention Centres: The example of Venna From the detention centres of Alexandroupoli, irregular migrants and asylum seekers are transferred mainly to Venna detention centre, but also to police stations of Xanthi120, Drama and others, under humiliating detention conditions and in the absence of any legal safeguards. 39 storage facility with six big cells and two open yards. The detention centre had originally been opened to decrease overcrowding in the detention centre of Sapes borderguard station. The total capacity is 220. In October 2011 the number of detainees varied from 160-200. Venna accommodates male irregular migrants who are arrested in the region of Rhodopi and also others arrested in other regions of Thrace – mainly those from Alexandroupoli region because of the overcrowding of the facilities there. It practice, it serves as the last detention facility before deportation. This is why irregular migrants in the detention centres of Evros and Rhodopi know the detention centre under the synonym of »deportation centre«. Usually, every Monday there are readmissions to Turkey. The majority of detainees tend to be from Iran, Iraq, Syria – three of the countries for which the Readmission Agreement with Turkey is already implemented. There are fewer detainees from Arabic countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Tunis, Algeria, and recently Kuwait, such as a few from Santo Dominica and Nigeria, who are usually detained for shorter periods. Detainees, who are transferred from Evros detention centres to Venna and then apply for asylum, are send back to Evros upon the registration of their asylum claim. In October 2011, most of the detainees were from Iran, Iraq and Nigeria – nationalities who are eligible for readmissions and deportations. Venna Special Facility for the Stay and Accommodation of Migrants, established in 2002, is a former agricultural Venna is dirty, humid and dark. Natural light is almost absent. There are no doors in the toilets, no hot water, no hygiene products provided for. During the winter months there is a heating, which is mainly turned on during the night. Beds are made of concrete and supplied with mattresses. Access to the telephone and the yard is restricted. The detainees can access the telephone only when yarding is permitted – meaning every three days for one hour. In October, there were one doctor, one social worker, one nurse and one interpreter appointed by the Ministry of Health. 118 S.Q. from Iran; October 14, 2011 – Feres (former detainee of Tychero) 119 S.A. from Iran; October 13, 2011 – Tychero 120 CPT 2009: In the reports on the 2005, 2007 and 2008 visits, the CPT characterized the conditions of detention in police and borderguard stations as »grim«, noting the severe overcrowding, poor material conditions, absence of ventilation and hygienic problems. Sadly, this description remained valid for the conditions observed in most stations visited in the course of the 2009 mission to Greece. The conditions were particularly poor at Athens Omonia Police Station, Feres Border Guard Station, Patras Police Headquarters and Xanthi Police and Border Guard Station, as well as at the Patras Transfer Centre. (…) In its report on the 2008 visit, the CPT stated that the detention conditions at the Xanthi Police and Border Guard Station could be considered as inhuman and degrading, and yet they were in an even worse state at the time of the 2009 visit. For example, cell N° 4 was without any light (natural or artificial) and the delegation had difficulties identifying the occupants of the cell in the dark; the absence of any light in the toilet area of the cell had led to unhygienic conditions detrimental to human health. http://www.cpt.coe.int/documents/grc/2010-33-inf-eng.htm 121 CPT 2008 122 The 2010 HLHR Report identified many shortcomings in the conditions at Venna immigration detention facility. 123 http://omadadikigorwnenglish.blogspot.com/2010/03/ press-release-for-rebellion-in-venna.html Venna detention centre is located in Rhodopi prefecture. Detention conditions are inhumane and degrading.121 122 In 2010, the detainees staged an upheaval protesting against the conditions.123 Today there is still a serious lack of legal safeguards in Venna, similar to the detention conditions in Evros.