The 2023 CPT report refers to one holding cell of around 60 square metres with built-on bunk bed structures on top of a concrete plinth covering most of the cell. These structures are visible in videos taken by detainees in 2020. Older reports refer to two, three, or four cells. Models of the interior created by Forensic Architecture based on the testimonies of people detained at Tychero in 2016 and 2022 show two cells. In 2005, the CPT described the detention area as consisting of two cells of 35 square metres each. Another cell was reportedly used for detention before screening by Frontex in the early 2010s. There is no clear information about the current detention capacity but in the past it has been reported as 45, 66, 76 and 80 persons.

In 2023, the CPT reported that the toilets were clean, but the cell area had little natural or artificial light, with most artificial lights not working .There were no mattresses or blankets provided. Following an inspection visit in 2022, the Greek Ombudsman reported that the facility did not guarantee ‘basic conditions for staying, even for a few hours’ and that the facilities needed ‘cleaning, repairs, and provision of outside space’.

Multiple reports since 2005 have documented inhumane and degrading conditions of detention. One key area of concern was the conditions of sanitary facilities which were repeatedly found to be dirty and malfunctioning. In 2009 and 2010, missions by the Hellenic League for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch observed that the facility’s sewage system was not working, resulting in the cells and mattresses becoming soiled. Detainees were not provided with sanitary products. Detainees did not have access to toilets and according to a 2011 Human Rights Watch report they had to urinate in bottles and be escorted to fields by guards in order to defecate. Cells were cold in the winter, badly lit and ventilated, without beds, forcing detainees to sleep on the floor. The facility was repeatedly found to be overcrowded, and men, women and children were held in the same spaces. Detainees did not have regular access to an outside space. The European Court of Human Rights found Greece in violation of Article 3 of the ECHR for the conditions of detention in Tychero Border Guard Department in the cases HA.A v Greece, A.Y. v. Greece and R.T. v. Greece.

In 2011, the Ministry of Citizen Protection issued a call for tender for the refurbishment of the detention area of the border guard department, which would involve painting, renovation of hygiene areas, installation of metal beds and additional fencing. Nonetheless, reports by the CPT and Amnesty International following the renovation found the conditions of detention largely unchanged. The detention facility officially closed in 2013. However, it continued to be used in practice.

While the CPT delegation did not visit Tychero in 2018, they received reports from detainees of overcrowding, bad hygiene conditions, lack of blankets and mattresses, insufficient provision of free food, not being able to access the toilet and being infected with scabies following detention at the facility. In 2020, the CPT delegation found evidence that the facility was still used for detention despite its closure and that no custody records were kept. Videos taken by detainees and released by the Alarmphone network in 2020 depict a dirty cell crammed with bunk beds and poor light.

The construction of a new building for the Tychero Border Guard Department is planned under the funding programme of the Border Management and Visa Instrument of the European Union.