Working together to end immigration detention: 9 a collection of noteworthy practices are completely banned, while in others, their use is that excessive limits on the use of phones result accepted with very few restrictions. The situation is in a violation of migrants’ fundamental rights. 20 similar in Greece, where practices change according However, litigation on this subject does not appear to each detention centre. 16 Only a few EU member to be widespread. Further steps need to be taken to states allow the use of smartphones or internet ensure that people in detention centres are able to devices with time limitations. In Portugal and in communicate, including through their smartphones Spain, personal phones are allowed but according to and mobile apps. 17 a strict time schedule. In Belgium, some detention 18 centres partially lifted restrictions on the use of Against this background, and in order to facilitate personal phones during the pandemic to counteract communication with the outside world and to make feelings of isolation,19 yet re-introduced them after the voices of people in detention heard, some civil the end of the pandemic. society organisations have set up hotline systems. These allow detained people to speak to NGOs Overall, further research is needed in this field, and volunteers by calling them from the phones in as information on the limits to the use of phones, detention centres without additional costs. mobile phones and internet devices is incomplete and not up to date in several countries in Europe. In In Belgium, people in detention have to pay for a digital world in which smartphones represent the their phone calls out of their own pocket. This often most common and easy way for people to stay in represents a challenge and forces people to rely on touch with families and friends, to store documents NGOs providing them with mobile top-ups and old and personal information, and to exercise their phones without cameras.21 rights to defence, information, and communication with the outside world, the bans and limitations In the Netherlands, the NGO Stichting Los launched placed in detention centres on the use of mobile the initiative ‘Meldpunt Vreemdelingendetentie’,22 phones appear disproportionate and unnecessary. which provides a free number which can be called Courts in Italy and Spain have already recognised by people in detention (‘immigration detention 16 Global Detention Project, Italy and Germany country profiles [accessed 23 October 2023] ; EMN, 2018, Ad-Hoc Query on Ad-hoc query on detention and material detention conditions. On Italy, see CILD, 2021, Black holes. 17 For instance, in Tavros Pre-removal detention facility (PRDF) and police stations, detainees are not allowed to keep their phones. In Amigdaleza PRDF and Korinthos PRDF detainees may keep their phones even if they have cameras. In Paranesti PRDF they are allowed to keep their phones if they don’t have a camera. In Kos, throughout 2022, containers within the Pre-Removal Detention Centre (PRDC) section of the new EU-funded Multi-Purpose Reception and Identification Centre (MPRIC) were used to quarantine newly arrived asylum seekers. During quarantine, individuals held in the containers could not communicate with anyone outside of the detention area and had no access to legal aid, as their phones were arbitrarily confiscated upon arrival. Information provided by a representative of the Greek Council for Refugees, Greece. 18 Global Detention Project, Portugal country profile [accessed 23 October 2023]; EMN, 2018, Ad-Hoc Query on Ad-hoc query on detention and material detention conditions. 19 Jesuit Refugee Service Belgium, 2021, Centres de détention pour migrants. 20 Decision of ‘Juzgado de Control’ nº 1 y 7 de Barcelona, 15.01.2014; Civil Court of Milan, 23.2.2021 (an abstract in English is available on the website of the EU Agency for Asylum). 21 Information provided by Jesuit Refugee Service Belgium and Move Coalition Belgium. 22 Meldpunt Vreemdelingendetentie is part of an organisation called Stichting Los, a network committed to the (collective) interests of undocumented migrants in the country.