92 European Journal of Criminology 18(1) reception and identification procedure. Although the provision did not refer to detention specifically, evidence from the conditions in facilities such as those in Evros and on the Greek islands demonstrated that those staying in RICs in practice became deprived of their liberty, in contravention of both EU and human rights provisions in relation to asylum (Papadopoulou et al., 2016). The three largest hotspots – on the islands of Lesvos, Chios and Samos – rapidly became overcrowded and conditions deteriorated dramatically, with insufficient shelter and food, poor sanitation and inadequate access to medical services. The government was subjected to international criticism in the winter of 2016-17 for its failure to use tens of millions of Euros of dedicated EU funding to properly prepare the camps on the islands for the impending harsh weather, or to evacuate all migrants to more appropriate conditions, leaving around half of the camp populations to cope in freezing conditions. The European Commissioner for Migration also pointed to the fact that no other country on the continent had as much access to EU Home Affairs funding as Greece did by that juncture (see, further, Howden and Fotiadis, 2017; Kingsley, 2016; Zafiropoulos, 2017). However, the implication that the EU was simply providing funds that were then mismanaged by others was itself criticised. The Médecins Sans Frontières Head of Mission in Greece characterised the pronouncements from the Commission as scandalous, given that the camp at Moria was built with European money, two European agencies were operating in the centre (FRONTEX and European Asylum Support Office), and the overcrowding of the camps was a direct consequence of the EU’s determination that migrants arriving on the islands not be allowed to travel to the Greek mainland (Zafiropoulos, 2017; see also Kalpouzos and Mann, 2015). As if underscoring this very point, just a few months later, in March 2017, EU member-states resumed returns of migrants to Greece under the Dublin II Agreement. By April 2018, there had been scant improvement in the treatment of detained irregular migrants and their living conditions. A visit by the CPT found that foreign nationals deprived of their liberty by the police under aliens’ legislation continued to be at risk of ill-treatment, particularly in the Evros region and on the Aegean islands. Fundamental legal safeguards against ill-treatment (for example, access to a lawyer) were rarely applied in practice and were generally ineffective. There was an almost total lack of interpretation services in all the establishments visited, and a chronic shortage of healthcare staff, medication and medical equipment. The CPT also criticised the inappropriately carceral design of the migration sites, which included ‘omnipresent’ rolls of razor blade wire and high wire-mesh fences. Overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in some sites of detention were condemned as ‘appalling’ and ‘grossly sub-standard’. For the CPT, conditions amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment, especially unsuitable for unaccompanied children, single and pregnant women, and families (CPT, 2019a). Conditions of detention for irregular migrants steadily worsened over the course of 2019, up to and following the July elections which saw the exit of the Syriza-led government and the entry to office of New Democracy (CPT, 2019b). Although the policies and practices of immigrant detention were in some key human rights respects to worsen further from that point onwards (see, for example, Commissioner for Human Rights, 2019; UNHCR, 2019), it is evident that, by the end of the Syriza-led government’s tenure in office, its human rights agenda for migrant detention had dramatically failed to be realised.