Amygdaleza closed hospitality centre during an uprising of Pakistani detainees. At a
meeting I had with the Deputy Director of the Amygdaleza centre in 2017, she said that
overcrowding in living units was not the detainees’ fault but instead the result of significant
degradation or destruction (including by arson) of accommodation containers caused by
the detainees while rioting; focusing on the destructiveness of the riots and rioters rather
than on systemic causes, like funding and the active state of neglect.
In May 2018 a fire broke out in one of the cells at Petrou Ralli. Even though it was quickly
put out and left no casualties, it managed to burn a whole wing. The fire had allegedly been
started as a sign of protest against the conditions inside the facility. As the Director of the
centre told me: ‘Most riots happened in this wing, so it [the fire] was meant to be’. The police
response was immediate and vengeful. The 10 persons, who were thought to be implicated
in this were attacked, injured and transferred to an unknown situation. The rest of the
detainees faced other repercussions, such as less food, no electricity, etc. (See Koinotita
Katalipseon Koukakiou, 2018). According to the authorities, they did not have the financial
capacity to renovate the burned wing, which resulted in less capacity and more
overcrowding on the other wings. This did not seem to be a major concern for the
administration, though. ‘It is better like this because we have less people. More people, more concerns.’
(Meeting in 2019), the Director of the centre stated.
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