II. INTRODUCTION TO THE SITUATION ON KOS AND THE REPORT’S DUAL-SCOPE A. Introduction to the situation on Kos On 24 March 2021, Greek authorities announced that a man had died in the Kos Pre-Removal Detention Centre (PRDC). The victim was 44-year-old Macky Diabate, a Guinean national who arrived on Kos just two months earlier. Diabate’s health was already in poor condition when he arrived as an asylum seeker in Greece. Under both Greek and EU law, persons with “serious illnesses” are considered a vulnerable group eligible for exemption from detention. When Diabate arrived in Greece, he explained his condition to the police—producing medical documents and lifting his shirt to reveal evidence of his two previous abdominal operations.62 However, Diabate’s requests to be released were ignored. The police detained him pending his asylum procedures.63 In the weeks following, Diabete’s health deteriorated. According to reports from witnesses, in the days leading up to his death, Diabete asked the police several times to be taken to the hospital and at one point was screaming in pain. The day before he died, Diabete tells police he doesn’t feel well, and asks to see a nurse. He is told it is too late in the day, and nothing can be done. The following day, he is finally permitted to see a nurse, who gives him three paracetamol tablets, and refuses to transfer him to64 Diabate is pronounced dead at 8:30pm the same evening. The cause of death is determined as peritonitis – a preventable, treatable abdominal infection caused by a burst appendix. The fact that a young man—who fled his home in pursuit of Europe’s protection—died from an entirely preventable medical complication remains confounding. Our research has revealed that Diabete’s experiences – and those of his fellow detainees at Kos PRDC – are not exceptional. In fact, another death occurred in Greece’s immigration detention system just four days after Diabate’s. On 28 March 2021, 24-year-old Kurdish asylum seeker, Ibrahim Ergun, committed suicide after being detained in the PRDC in Corinth for over 17 months.65 These incidents have drawn attention to the precariousness that detained asylum seekers’ face in Greece — a state of affairs that seems to have barely improved since the foundation of the national detention system three decades ago. Asylum seekers in Greece continue to be routinely and unlawfully detained, deprived of sufficient food and medical attention, and systematically prevented from accessing already inadequate legal remedies and services. Since the opening of our Kos office in January 2021, we have repeatedly seen these issues surface in the Kos PRDC. This report documents the current situation concerning the detention of asylum seekers in the Kos PRDC. It draws from the testimonies of 31 asylum seekers detained in the Kos PRDC in Pyli in order to examine both their experiences of being detained and the conditions in which they are forced to live. These testimonies are then assessed against standards established under Greek, EU, and international law. 62 Deportation Monitoring Aegean, Another death in prison – Outrage in Kos detention centre after medical attention withheld (26 March 2021), available at: https://bit.ly/3krQViE. 63 Ibid. 64 Ibid. 65 AND News, Brother of Kurdish refugee who committed suicide in Greek camp: The state is responsible (29 March 2021), available at: https://bit.ly/3zhv5Vb. 5 DETENTION OF MIGRANTS ON THE ISLAND OF KOS