the conditions of detention of third country nationals in the Athens airport detention centre violated the prohibition on inhuman or degrading treatment in Article 3 ECHR21. The centre was designed to provide short-term housing prior to transfer to another detention facility in Athens. In practice, however, both economic immigrants and asylum seekers are routinely held in the centre for more than 90 days. The facility itself is divided into two parts: one for those detained on a ‘criminal’ basis, that is those who attempted to leave Greece with fake documents, and another for women, minors and the small number of people who arrive in Greece by plane. Women, minors and arrivals are allowed relative freedom of movement and only a few stay for more than one month. However, 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 an exercise yard. Their only physical movement is limited to going to the toilet for a few minutes in the morning and the evening. At all other times they are locked inside their cells with nothing to do. At times even this ‘trip’ to the toilet is not allowed due to severe overcrowding or staff inaction. As detention officers put it: ‘We are not their servants here. They cannot go to the toilet whenever they want. They are too many, so we will take them only when we can’22. At the time of writing, 67 people are detained in this way in nine single-bed cells, though the number has reached a high point of 120 detainees. These men have to sleep on mattresses or blankets placed directly on the floor. When it is crowded like this, the men cannot all can lie down and sleep at the same time. Other rules restrain them: they are not allowed to smoke more than three cigarettes, they are not given cutlery for ‘security’ reasons and conditions of hygiene are never properly observed leading to the transmission of contagious diseases. The effect of absolute control is not lost on the male detainees: ‘we are buried alive here. This is like a mass grave’ … ‘but we are not animals, we are humans and we have human rights, no?’ In 2012 Medical Intervention wrote a report, addressed to all the relevant Ministries and officials, to register the main deficiencies of the airport detention area. Although the officials at the airport centre initially responded merely by threatening lawsuits for slander, the leakage of the report in the media appears to have energized the management and staff to create better conditions for the detainees. During the summer, a large number of detainees were released, the frequency of access to toilet was increased, plastic cutlery was offered with every meal and generally officers were more receptive to our suggestions.23 Such changes, though welcome, do little to address the basic problems of this facility that, in January 2012, was held by the CPT (2012) to contravene basic standards of decency and humanity. Their only physical movement is limited to going to the toilet for a few minutes in the morning and the evening. At all other times they are locked inside their cells with nothing to do. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. Trapped in Greece Greece will soon detain a much larger number of immigrants than its current prison population of 12,000 people 24. Operation ‘Xenios Zeus’, launched in August, 2012 by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, aims to restore human dignity to immigrants at the same time as it sets out plans to arrest all undocumented migrants in Greece, indefinitely detain them in web of remote centres located in buildings pressed into service for this reason, before eventually deporting them. According to police sources they have so far arrested 10,000 people and detained more than 4,000 25. The government has also announced its intention to build 30 new detention centres by 2014 to hold 30,000 immigrants. The multi-million programme, funded by the European Union, foresees the creation of ‘closed hospitality centres’ on unused military sites to fight inner-city crime, deter economic immigrants and create local jobs26. M.S.S. v Belgium and Greece, op cit, para. 231-234; R.U. v Greece, ECtHR , Application No.2237/08 of June 7, 2011, para. 63-64; S.D. v Greece, ECtHR , Application No. 53541/07 of June 11, 2009, para. 49-54. Detainees claim that they are allowed to go to the toilet for a maximum 3 times a day. Many times they urinate in plastic bottles or against the doors. They have now allowed us to offer them books and detainees can buy food from the canteen at the airport as meal portions are very small. The number of migrant detainees cannot be found in any official police statistics; however, based on rough estimates this number is now around 10.000. See, http://euobserver.com/justice/117178 The first of such centres built on the outskirts of Athens will soon hold 2.000 immigrants. Issue 205 Prison Service Journal 37