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Executive Summary
This report serves as an update to the Expert Report “Detained and Forgotten at the Gates of the EU:
Detention of Migrants on the Island of Kos” published in November 2021, which documented the use
of immigration detention on the Eastern Aegean Island of Kos. The November 2021 report situated
detention practices on Kos within the broader context of immigration detention in Europe. More than
one year later, this report provides an update on the ways in which detention continues to be an
integral part of immigration policy on Kos, as well as an essential component of Europe’s broader
immigration policies.
Section I of this report briefly explains the changes in the legal framework that governs the detention
of asylum seekers, focusing specifically on the new asylum code that continues to allow the authorities
to detain asylum seekers under specific circumstances.
Section II provides updates regarding three topics that we covered in the first edition of our report: A)
detention practices and policies in the Kos Pre-Removal Detention Centre (PRDC), B) living conditions
in the Kos PRDC, and C) the procedural rights and remedies available to detained migrants.
With regards to current detention practices in the Kos PRDC, Part A focuses on two notable changes—
the ending of detention upon arrival and a reduced maximum detention period—in addition to
providing an overview on the current demographics in the PRDC, highlighting the various pathways
through which asylum seekers now end up in detention and the different groups of individuals
currently detained.
Part B discusses updates to the living conditions in the PRDC, drawing from 10 in-depth interviews
conducted with migrants who were detained in the Kos PRDC. The interviews covered six themes that
are frequently mentioned by people detained in the PRDC: the carceral environment and ill treatment
by police, inadequate food and water, lack of recreational activities, overcrowding, inadequate
healthcare, and poor hygiene facilities and materials. Across these six themes, we compared
interviewees’ testimonies regarding the living conditions in 2022 to the testimonies from the
November 2021 report, concluding that the overall conditions in the PRDC have changed little since we
published the first report.
Part C subsequently provides an update on the procedural rights and remedies available to detained
asylum seekers, with a particular focus on their access to legal information and services, detention
orders and reasonings, and rights to effective remedies.
Finally, Section III discusses the development of detention practices outside the Kos PRDC. While the
use of detention in the PRDC has become less commonplace, other forms of detention have emerged in
its place. Not a comprehensive overview of the new forms of detention that have emerged, we use this
update to briefly highlight what those practices are. In particular, Section III discusses three practices
that were not covered in the November 2021 report: Covid-19 quarantine, the 25-day restriction of
liberty imposed on new arrivals, and the use of the new Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC).
Although these practices are not formally named by the authorities as detention, they are included in
this report because of the impact they have on asylum seekers’ fundamental right to liberty.
‘Still detained and forgotten’ – Update on Detention Policies, Practices, and Conditions on Kos 2022/23