At the end of the visit, the delegation invoked Article 8, paragraph 5, of the Convention and requested that the Greek authorities take immediate steps to end the practice of holding children at the establishment, in line with the principle of the best interest of the child. Instead, children should be transferred together with their parents to appropriate open accommodation, capable of catering for the children’s needs. In their communication of 12 February 2024, while indicating that efforts were made to reduce to a minimum the stay of children with their parents in the existing facilities, the Greek authorities did not address the CPT’s main concern. Therefore, having regard to the principle of the “best interests of the child”, as set out in the International Convention on the Rights of the Child,19 and the case law of the European Court on Human Rights,20 the CPT recommends that the Greek authorities end the detention of children at Athens Airport Special holding facility and transfer any child placed at the facility, together with their parents, to appropriate open accommodation, capable of providing adequate support and care for these children. 5. Pre-removal detention centres a. preliminary remarks 65. The CPT has consistently advocated that persons deprived of their liberty under immigration legislation should be accommodated in centres specifically designed for that purpose, offering material conditions and a regime appropriate to their legal situation. Care should be taken in the design and layout of such premises to avoid, as far as possible, any impression of a carceral environment. The Committee has also repeatedly set out the minimum conditions under which these persons should be held.21 66. In the past, the CPT has been highly critical of the carceral design of the pre-removal detention centres in Greece, which have a primary focus on security and containment. The fenced detention perimeters with several layers of rolls of barbed wire on top of the fences, prefabricated containers or shelters, observed notably at Kos, Fylakio and Paranesti PRDCs and, to a lesser extent, also in Corinth and Xanthi PRDCs, are inappropriate. Further, it is still the case that the barred cells in the police pen-like centres of Fylakio and Tavros (Petrou Ralli) provide for a prison-like environment. The CPT recommends that the Greek authorities review the high-level security standards for, and improve the design of, all pre-removal detention centres to render them less carceral, in line with the Committee’s standards on immigration detention.22 67. The CPT found that many of the Committee’s previous recommendations have not been implemented and it remains the case that – due to their carceral design and their poor material conditions and regime – most of the pre-removal detention centres visited do not provide an appropriate environment for holding foreign nationals deprived of their liberty under immigration legislation for prolonged periods. In addition, healthcare services often remained insufficient to meet the needs of the persons detained, and the centres were not staffed with suitably qualified personnel. Consequently, the CPT calls on the Greek authorities to reform their immigration detention system and ensure that foreign nationals deprived of their liberty under immigration legislation are held in suitable premises, offering material conditions and a regime appropriate to their legal situation and staffed by suitably qualified personnel. 19. See Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 14 (2013) on the right of the child to have their best interests a primary consideration (Article 3(1)) of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, CRC/C/GC/14; and United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, A/74/136, 11 July 2019. 20. See, inter alia European Court of Human Rights, H.A. and Others v. Greece, no. 19951/16, 28 February 2019; and Mahmudi and Others v. Greece, no. 14902/10, 31 July 2012. 21. See the report on the CPT’s 2013 visit (CPT/Inf (2014) 26), paragraph 51 and the CPT Factsheet on Immigration detention of March 2017 (CPT/Inf (2017) 3), Section 4. 22. See the CPT’s factsheet on Immigration detention, CPT/Inf (2017) 3), 10 March 2017. 20