FORGOTTEN
Administratively detained irregular migrants and asylum seekers
any particular detention in order to ensure compliance with ECHR
obligations and obligations resulting from the Charter of Fundamental
Rights of the European Union when applying EU law.
At a national level, Law 3907/2011, transposing into Greek
legislation the provisions of Directive 2008/115/EC5 for returning
illegally staying third-country nationals, stipulates the imposition –or
continuation– of detention, taking into account the possible lack of
appropriate spaces and difficulties in ensuring decent living conditions
of the detainees,6 the detention of third-country nationals for the
purpose of return in specialized detention facilities, the right of the
detainees to communicate with their lawyers, their family members,
the consular authorities and NGOs, the provision of emergency
health care and treatment for vulnerable persons and the provision
of information to the detainees on their rights and obligations.7
More specifically, the families shall be provided with separate
accommodation, while minors shall have the possibility to engage in
leisure activities, to have access to education and should be provided
with accommodation in institutions with personnel and facilities which
take into account the needs of their age.8 According to P.D. 113/2013,
transposing into Greek legislation the provisions of Directive 2005/85/
EC9, asylum seekers shall be provided with equivalent guarantees in
regard with the detention of minors, the provision of medical care,
the safeguarding of the right to legal representation and they shall
be informed in a language which they may reasonably be supposed
to understand, on the grounds and the time-frame of their detention.
Law 4375/2016, transposing into Greek legislation the provisions of
Directives 2013/33/EU10 and 2013/32/ΕU,11 provides for equivalent
guarantees regarding the detention of asylum seekers. In compliance
with law 4375/2016, the detention of an asylum seeker constitutes
5 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:348:0098:0107:El:PDF, (5th
September 2016)
6 Art.. 30 par. 1 Law 3907/2011
7 ar. 31 Ibid
8 Ibid
9 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2005:326:0013:0034:EL:PDF, (5th
September 2016)
10 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:180:0096:0116:EL:PDF,
(5th September 2016)
11 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/El/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32013L0032&from=El, (5th
September 2016)
16