According to the report from a CPT visit in 2023, the facility is divided in two sections, with an official capacity of 65 people.

Main section

Since as early as 2005, international human rights organizations have repeatedly expressed their concerns over severe overcrowding and unhygienic conditions in this part of the airport facility, with the European Court of Human Rights finding in the judgement in M.S.S in 2020 that the conditions of detention of third country nationals in the facility violated the prohibition on inhuman or degrading treatment in Article 3. In 2023, the CPT reported that conditions in the facility remained largely unchanged since its visit in 2016, describing them as ’appalling’ and amounting to inhuman or degrading treatment.

The men housed in the main section are huddled together in spaces designed as single-occupancy cells (each 9 square metres) behind iron doors with very little natural light and no access to outdoor space. Numerous reports have documented serious overcrowding in the facility (see Amnesty International in 2009, 2010, Crime and Justice in 2012), with the CPT noting in 2016 that ’such a gross level of overcrowding leading to 1 m² or less of living space per person constitutes in itself inhuman treatment. A cell of 9 m² should not accommodate more than two persons’. Despite this, at the time of the CPT visit in 2023, the facility continued to hold three or four people in each cell, with one or two people sleeping on mattresses on the floor. The CPT also reported that a 15-year-old boy was held in this section with his father.

There have been consistent reports of poor hygiene in the cells and bathroom facilities. The 2023 CPT report described conditions in the cells as ’filthy’, with reports of cockroaches and bed bug infestations. The report also described ’deplorable’ hygiene conditions in the bathrooms with no working toilets, showers or sinks. As there are no in-cell toilets, a consistent criticism over the years has been that there are severe difficulties in gaining access to the toilets (see here, here and here). In 2023, men held in the cells reportedly had to wait for up to two hours for a police officer to open the cell, which resulted in them having to urinate out of the cell window. People were also reportedly held for more than ten days without access to a shower.

Despite the cells being unsuitable for holding people for more than 24 hours, there have been numerous reports that detainees are held for long periods, with the CPT finding in 2023 that people were held for up to twelve days.

Family and women’s area

Women, minors and arrivals are allowed relative freedom of movement in this section. However, in 2009 Amnesty International reported having seen a number of children, held together with their families and a woman who was clearly in an advanced stage of pregnancy. When a research team visited the facility in 2018, five women and one child were held in the area across three rooms. There were two reasonably clean bathrooms. The rooms had bunk beds and the doors were left open to allow some freedom of movement. There was graffiti in this area, although the majority of it looked like children’s drawings and was colourful and inoffensive. In 2023, the CPT reported that the material conditions were slightly better than the main section but mattresses had not been cleaned and blankets were infested with bed bugs, while sanitary facilities were dirty and one of the showers was broken. At the time of the visit, two women had been held with their three children, including a toddler, in the ‘special room for the care of infants’. One woman had been held with her children for over a month. They reportedly had no access to toys, child-appropriate food, nappies or fresh air, with the CPT concluding that the facility is ’entirely inappropriate for detaining children’.

Transit zone

Men held in this area are arrested trying to enter Greece without valid authorisation. They were not subject to any current criminal charges; however, some may have had a criminal charge in Greece previously, which prevented them from entering the country.

As a research team noticed in 2018, the rooms in this section were more spacious than in the main men’s corridor. They had bunk beds and space to move around, but were featureless and in some places dirty. There were six bunkbeds in one room which, at the time of the visit, held two men. The doors to the rooms were open, allowing some limited free movement in the small detention area. Both men were unhappy about the conditions they were in.

As documented elsewhere, a regime of de facto detention applies in the case of persons held there. These people receive an entry ban to the Greek territory and are then arrested and held in order to be returned on the next available flight. Those who are temporarily held while awaiting departure are not systematically recorded in a register. However, those who express intention to apply for asylum are detained for up to 28 days after full registration of their application according to the Border Procedure, with no detention decision issued; thus remaining de facto detained. Where no decision is taken within 28 days, the person is released for the application to be examined according to the Regular Procedure. According to the police authorities the persons held there are considered under ‘supervision’ and not detention.