Monitoring visit to the Athens Airport special holding facility The special holding facility of the Police Directorate of the Athens Airport holds people who had been detained on the way in or out of the airport. At the time of the visit, the main part of the centre was comprised of nine multioccupancy cells used for adult males who had broken the criminal law, usually as a result of passport offences. There were 29 detainees present. The majority were eventually taken to Petrou Ralli or Amygdaleza detention centres. Men we spoke to reported having been detained for three to 17 days. The centre also had an area for women and families, and a separate transit zone unit for individuals who were not subject to criminal charges and had travel documents. During a wide-ranging discussion between the NPM and head of airport police services, the latter said he was generally happy with the operation of the detention facility but complained that the lack of administrative staff led to detainees being held for longer than the three days that he thought should be a maximum in that environment. He had not been able to significantly speed up moves from the airport as other centres were overcrowded. He said people were regularly held for 28 days[39] but children did not stay in the centre for more than a couple of days. There was no social worker or other children’s services. He felt that his staff did not need interpreters because police officers could speak two or three languages, although none of these individuals were evident during the NPM visit. For healthcare, the centre relied on airport emergency services and transferred to hospitals as needed. NPM Practice The criminal cells corridor There were nine cells along an open corridor with small open spaces at either end. There was no CCTV. There were no in-cell toilets, and these were instead located along the corridor. There was no toilet paper in the toilets and some detainees had rolls of paper in their cells. Detainees had to knock on the door to be let out to use the toilet. They told the NPM they were locked up all day with very little time out of cell. Behind the cells there was an extremely dirty corridor visible through the cell bars. On the other side of it, the windows were frosted so there was some natural light but no view of the outside (see appendix one). There was a waste bin below each cell window. The outside space beyond the frosted glass was inaccessible to detainees because, we were told, there was no fence to keep them secured. [39] According to Law 4375/2016, any person transiting through the airport who applied for asylum could be detained for a maximum of 28 days, after which they had to be released if there was no decision on their case (ECRE, 2019). 21