tive immigration policies that preceded and followed it, have led to a protection crisis by which detention is used as “a convenient off-the-shelf measure that [EU] states employ without careful consideration of its ramifications or usefulness”.42 Although policymakers and governments across Europe have often justified immigration detention as a means of facilitating migrant returns, overwhelming evidence indicates that only a small percentage of detained migrants are actually, in practice, removed.43 B Immigration detention in Greece: 1990s-2019 Greece’s current detention system dates back to the 1990s44 when the country became one of positive net immigration.45 In 2001, a special facility for the reception of migrants was opened on Lesvos which was later housed in a disused prison site.46 Already as early as 2001, illegal measures, including illegal push-backs and detention without notification or access to legal services, were routinely implemented to counter irregular crossings at the border.47 By 2005, the detention of migrants had become enshrined in law. Since then, Greek laws on detention have both proliferated and fortified: Law 3386/2005 (‘2005 Law’) provided for the detention of third-country nationals prior to deportation on various grounds, including being “suspect for escape”, “dangerous for the public order”, or “avoid[ing] or obstruct[ing] the preparation of his departure or the procedure of his expulsion”.48 Law 3772/2009 (‘2009 Law’) then increased the maximum period of detention prior to deportation from 3 to 6 months, and allowed for an extension of up to 12 months, thus allowing for a detention period of up to 18 months in total.49 Beginning in 2010, detention practices on the ground already diverged from what was legally permissible: in 2010, Amnesty International expressed concerns that the legal provisions on immigration detention were frequently contravened, as Greek authorities were found to be detaining irregular migrants who could not, for various reasons, be removed.50 In May 2011, the detention estate was further fortified when the Cabinet expressed its intention to establish the country’s first reception centres and detention facilities in former military camps.51 The following year, Law 3907/2011 (‘2011 Law’) established Greece’s Asylum Service and First Reception Service, and provided for the detention of third-country nationals subject to return procedures in accordance with the EU Returns Directive.52 In the months following, border control procedures rapidly intensified, and increasing numbers of undocumented migrants were detained.53 42 43 44 45 46 47 Majcher et al: 4 Jesuit Refugee Service, Immigration Detention, available at: https://bit.ly/3gLFQI8. University of Oxford Border Criminologies, Landscapes of Border Control: Greece, available at: https://bit.ly/3DBIhqw. Leonidas K Cheliotis, Behind of the veil of philoxenia: The politics of immigration detention in Greece, 10(6) (1 November 2013) 725. Ibid. University of Oxford Border Criminologies, Landscapes of Border Control: Greece, available at: https://bit.ly/3DBIhqw, University of Oxford Border Criminologies, Landscapes of Border Control: Moria Pre-Removal Detention Centre, available at: https://bit. ly/2WnOllT. 48 Art. 76(3) L. 3386/2005. 49 Amnesty International, Greece: Irregular Migrants and Asylum-Seekers Routinely Detained in Substandard Conditions (July 2010), 8, available at: https://bit.ly/3Dsk3zb. 50 Ibid at 15. 51 University of Oxford Border Criminologies, Landscapes of Border Control: Greece, available at: https://bit.ly/3DBIhqw. 52 Art. 30 L. 3907/2011. 53 Pillant Laurence, Operation “Xenios Zeus”: A strategy for deterring immigration through detention, intimidation and violation of migrants’ rights, Athens Social Atlas (December 2015), available at: https://bit.ly/3BsEVoa. 3 DETENTION OF MIGRANTS ON THE ISLAND OF KOS