to meet briefly in the evenings. Detention conditions were totally unacceptable: beds were concrete slabs, and some of the detainees were sleeping on mattresses on the floor; there were no toilets in the cells and as the migrants sometimes had to wait a long time before being allowed to go to the toilet, they resorted to using plastic bottles. While there were two courtyards—for men and for women—migrants were locked up in their cells most of the day. There were toys for the children to play with in the courtyard, but nothing in the cells” (SRHRM 2013). Previously, during its 2009 visit, the CPT found some improvements compared to its previous visit, particularly in terms of the state of hygiene, the access to the toilet, and the outdoor exercise. However the committee stressed that the centre remained an unsuitable place for holding persons for prolonged periods (CPT 2009). In the cases of S.D. in 2009, R.U. in 2011, and Bygylashvili in 2012, the ECtHR ruled that the conditions of detention in the Attica Aliens Police Directorate amounted to ill-treatment (ECtHR 2009a; ECtHR 2011c; ECtHR 2012b). In late 2012 and early 2013, two detention centres were closed in the region: in Ellinikon and Aspropyrgus. The Aspropyrgus facility for men was notorious for overcrowding and severely substandard conditions (CPT 2009; Pappa 2011). The Ellinikon centre, which was located in the former airport, was the repeatedly criticised by rights watchdogs (CPT 2006; HRW 2010). In the Lin case, the ECtHR found that the conditions in the Ellinikon centre amounted to degrading treatment (ECtHR 2012c). The GDP heart from local NGOs that a new dedicated centre was supposedly reopened in Ellinikon during 2013 (Theodoropoulou 2013). Peloponnese region. In August 2012, a former military camp in Corinth was converted to a pre-removal detention centre, which can confine more than 1000 persons. Its opening sparked protests among local residents and authorities. While individual lawyers may visit detainees, access is reportedly difficult for civil society organisations (Pappa 2012). However, in October 2012 a 7-person delegation of parliamentarians, NGOs members, interpreters, a lawyer and a doctor was granted permission to visit the facility. The delegation reported that there were 650 people confined in the facility at the time, including a large number of minors as well as men who had been separated from their families. People wishing to apply for asylum were unable to do so, and some asylum seekers had been held in the detention centre for longer than the three months prescribed in law. Detainees complained of lack of access to warm water, inadequate food supplies, no access to information and legal aid, and insufficient visits by doctors (Infomobile 2012c). In November 2012, a hunger strike broke out in the centre to protest the long periods in detention and the inadequate conditions at the facility. To quell the disturbance, riot police were sent in using teargas and some 20 detainees were arrested (Infomobile 2012g). Epirus region. A 30-person border guard station in the port city of Igoumenitsa was frequently used to confine migrants apprehended while trying to reach Italy, typically hidden in trucks. In October 2012, a protest over the paltry conditions at the facility resulted in the injury and hospitalisation of 11 detainees (Kathimerini 2012c). In November 2012 the Igoumenitsa Criminal Court, in a case involving 15 immigration detainees who had escaped from the detention facility, ruled that conditions of their detention violated article 3 of the ECHR. Given the extreme state of necessity that the 14