The first purpose-built camp, the pre-removal centre of Amygdaleza, opened its doors on 28 April 2012. Located right next to the police academy in northern Athens, it was equipped with 250-300 containers and was designed to host 2,000 detainees in ‘exemplary’ facilities across three sections. Its size and layout made it look more like a camp rather than a centre. In each compound of every section there were three or four rows of containers. Each room housed 8 people and was equipped with a table, chairs, and a cupboard, as well as a toilet. Those detained could remain outside for eight hours a day. While these conditions were better compared to other facilities in the country, this did not render Amygdaleza exemplary in any way.

On an annual budget of 10,500,000 euros, roughly 14 euros per person per day, the money was hardly enough to cover the daily needs of 2,000 persons. As the CPT reported in 2013 ‘two general practitioners and two nurses were present at the centre every weekday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; at weekends, persons in need would be transferred to the local hospital. A full-time psychologist and a psychiatrist visited the centre once a week, but there was no dentist. This is far from sufficient for a detainee population of some 1,600 persons.’ The almost total lack of purposeful or recreational activities on offer meant that they could just walk or kick a ball in the outside space comprised solely of gravel paths. What is more, even though visits were often, there was no special room provided. Instead, people had to meet with their visitors through the fencing enclosing their compound.

When asked about the living conditions of the centre for a TV show in 2012, Mr Dendias, then Minister of Public Protection was clear: ‘We make sure we follow European standards. However, conditions are not ideal, this is not a hotel. The logic is that ‘humanely acceptable deficiencies’ will force irregulars out of Greece’. These ‘humanely acceptable deficiencies’ were coupled with ill-treatment of foreign nationals by law enforcement agencies. According to CPT, several persons alleged that they had received slaps, kicks and blows with a baton. A person who had been taken to the hospital after an act of self-harm, claimed he had been handcuffed to the fence of his compound for a whole day upon his return to the centre. Other allegations were made against abuse by detention officers of people who were on hunger strike.

In August 2013, following a series of similar concerns, including the death of one man of an infection which had been ignored for months, and the announcement of their detention extended from 12 to 18 months, immigrants detained there, refused to be locked back in their rooms and set fire to their bedding. Greek riot police were deployed to forcefully end the riot, during which 10 people managed to escape. As a punishment, detainees were not allowed out of their rooms for days and those held responsible for the riot were charged with felony crimes and sent to prison. In November 2014, following yet another death (the 4th since the centre opened) and amid reports by Greek politicians which cast Amygdaleza as a modern Dachau, where rooms were left without electricity for days, medical care was lacking and personal hygiene could not be observed, more than 90% of the population detained went on a long hunger strike, which ended shortly after.

In February 2015, when the new left-wing government came to power, it assured Greek citizens that immigration detention centres belonged to the past, committing to its election pledge to reverse anti-immigrant policies of the previous right-wing government. At a visit to the infamous, by then, Amygdaleza pre-removal detention centre, following the suicide of a Pakistani detainee, then Deputy Minister of Citizen’s Protection, Yannis Panousis, said ‘I am here to express my embarrassment. We are done with detention centres.’ Indeed, in March 2015, the government started evacuating this centre at a rate of 30 migrants per day, amid great fanfare about the humanitarian face of the new era and, to its credit, despite fervent opposition not only by other parties but also by local residents. The aim was to close down the centre within 100 days, and other centres as soon as possible. However, Amygdaleza never closed. In fact, the closure of the ‘Western Balkan route’ and the activation of the EU-Turkey Statement in March 2016 made detention yet again a key means to migration control.

In 2016, at a research visit, the facility had a significantly reduced capacity. This, however, did not preclude overcrowding in the compounds that were in use. The Deputy Director, the research team met, told them that the overcrowding was due to detainees damaging the units. Indeed, seven out of 13 wings were out of use, due to the significant degradation or destruction (including by arson) of most of the accommodation containers in these wings. They spoke to a number of men through the fences but were not permitted to enter the detainee compounds. Many of the men were angry and frustrated. They complained about the lack of hot water, limited access to their mobile phones, lack of understanding of their cases and, in particular, the cold. One man said ‘I wear all my clothes at night and still I am cold.' The lack of well-maintained modern facilities was identified by the deputy director as a major problem, which frustrated detainees and made it difficult to manage them. She mentioned 80 broken air conditioner units, which she hoped the ICRC would pay to repair.

The deputy director further added that it was not unusual for men to be held there for around six months, but that 17 men had been detained in the centre for over a year. She felt length of stay was the biggest problem managers faced, as it lead to frustration and sometimes violence. Anyone who was considered a control problem, she said, was transferred to the Petrou Ralli facility. Many detainees also had health problems, which were difficult to manage because there were few doctors at the centre and to take them to a hospital meant losing officers to escort duties. There were no activities to keep men occupied and promote mental and physical health. The staff seemed to view the men as problems. They had no particular detention training, for example in managing self-harm or recognising mental health problems. The research team saw no engagement between the police officers and detainees.

In line with the above, in 2016 NGO AITIMA observed that in some containers the equipment, such as air-conditioning, hot water, and toilets, was defective. The quantity of food and personal hygiene products distributed were also insufficient. Similar complaints were reported by the CPT after its visit in 2018. Despite there being an open-door regime applied and persons having access to their mobile phones, problems remained. For example, in the course of the visit, the delegation was informed of the death of a foreign national on 7 April 2018 during his transfer from Amygdaleza Pre-removal Centre to a hospital. It turned out that he had not been seen by health-care staff upon his arrival at the centre and his medical file, including blood results suggesting he was suffering from an infection, had not been transferred to Amygdaleza. Overcrowding in some units ‘was mainly due to the many problems with the plumbing (e.g. non-functioning showers/toilets or leaking pipes), electricity (e.g. non-functioning lights and electrical outlets) or other damage (e.g. broken doors) in other units. Thus, some units could no longer be used for accommodation, while others were still used despite their state of disrepair.’ Some foreign nationals also indicated that their bedding and blankets had not been cleaned for several months. Despite an open door policy, which the CPT welcomed, there was an almost total lack of purposeful or recreational activities on offer to detained foreign nationals, with their only distraction being kicking a ball in the gravel forecourts of the facility. Moreover, as GCR reported despite the fact that a playground was built, families with children and unaccompanied children did not have access to it. The National Preventive Mechanism report covering the period 2020-2021 was critical of the police practice of detaining in Amygdaleza new arrivals from shipwrecks.

Women

Following allegations of sexual harassment against women detained in the Petrou Ralli facility, migrant women were transferred to Amygdaleza, making volunteer visits more difficult due to the centre's remote location. According to reports by collectives that support the women, in October 2020 three women attempted suicide. In a video that was shared by the House of Women, a feminist collective that visits women in detention since 2016, a female detention officer is heard saying 'What is this? Are we going to have an incident every day?' upon seeing a woman on the floor after having attempted suicide making no effort to assist her. NGO Arsis, which was called to offer leagl aid to one of the women, commented: 'The detention conditions, as well as the duration of detention for so many months, have aggravated the psychological state of the detainees. We have been observing both mental and physical deterioration for several months and as they tell us, they are completely disappointed, as they feel forgotten and do not see any immediate prospect of release'. Following these incidents, women detained in the facility decided to go on a hunger strike to demand better treatment and more information about their cases. “Nobody cares about us,” they said.

Amygdaleza Minors' unit

Due to the lack of appropriate accommodation facilities for children, detention, or as it was euphemistically called ‘protective custody’, was systematically imposed and may have been prolonged for periods ranging from a few days to more than two months, pending their transfer to an accommodation facility. Unaccompanied children could be detained anywhere, in police stations and pre-removal facilities on the mainland or in Reception and Identification Centres on the islands in unacceptable conditions. It should be noted that since children were not detained for administrative purposes (i.e. for the purpose of return or deportation), legal remedies provided by the law to challenge administrative detention did not apply.

The Amygdaleza Special holding facility for unaccompanied minors, located very close to the Amygdaleza facility for adults, was one of the sites where unaccompanied children had been held for years under the ‘protective custody’ terms. As there were no specific operating rules, it was essentially run like a police detention facility. Alarmingly, the CPT in 2013 reported that whenever children posed a problem, they would be transferred to Petrou Ralli. The Amygdaleza centre, sited within a warehouse-type structure had four large rooms (each measuring approximately 55 m²) with high ceilings, equipped with 10 concrete plinths for sleeping purposes and 10 concrete benches, which were also used for storing belongings.

When a research team visited the facility in December 2016 it found that the mattresses were very dirty and stained. ‘The blue painted rooms were cold and covered in graffiti. The boys said they were bitten by insects during the night and we could see insects moving on their mattresses. The shower and toilet areas were dirty and moldy. The boys said they washed clothes with cold water in sinks and left them out to dry in the washroom and we could see clothes put out to dry.’ There was an outdoor space, a small concrete outdoor exercise yard, fully sheltered and enclosed with metal bars, but as was been documented the gate was rarely opened. It was locked off during our visit. An officer said the boys were allowed out every day but the boys themselves told us it was rare for the gate to be opened. The researchers established from other staff that the gate had not been opened for several days. A group of Pakistani boys spoke to them at length and the conversations were troubling. Some had been rescued from a sinking ship and still appeared to be traumatised. A manager told them that some of the boys were depressed or anxious. As the CPT reported the same year, ‘the floor in the shower and toilet area of the Amygdaleza holding facility was repeatedly flooded with effluent due to a broken drain; a situation that had existed for over a month. Many juveniles were bare-footed and had to walk through the effluent, given that they were not provided with any footwear’.

Given their traumatic journeys and experiences, the facility was totally unsuitable for accommodating children. As the CPT noted after its 2018 visit, 22 minors were held at Amygdaleza, though the facility should no longer be used for detaining children as it was unsuitable to meet their needs. Shortly after, the facility closed. With the legal document L. 4760/2020 entered into force at the end of 2020, the possibility to detain unaccompanied children under the pretext of ‘protective custody’ has been abolished. Other legal provisions that allow the detention of unaccompanied children are still in force. Throughout 2022, 517 children were kept inside immigration detention facilities, whereas [throughout 2023] (https://asylumineurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/AIDA-GR_2023-Update.pdf), the numbers slightly decreased to 508 unaccompanied minors being detained in immigration detention facilities.