- 28 6. Special Holding Facilities for Aliens a. introduction 48. The CPT visited the special holding facilities for aliens in Mytilini, Peplos, Venna, and the Chios Temporary Reception Centre for aliens. These holding facilities serve as places for the administrative detention for immigration detainees. Usually irregular migrants are brought to these centres after a short stay in a border guard station or after processing by the coast guard, and can remain in these facilities for up to three months. At the time of the visit, Special Holding Facilities for aliens were operated under the auspices of the Region (i.e. the Prefecture was responsible for providing the buildings, furnishings, hygienic products, health care, etc.), while the Police was responsible for the custodial duties. However, the new Law on Aliens (Law N° 3386) entered into force in January 2006, and Article 81 foresees that all decision making with respect to alien detention centres be taken at the national, as opposed to the regional, level. More specifically, the central government shall also decide on the specifications and terms of operation of the detention centres. In the course of the 2005 visit, the delegation noted that the roles of the police and the prefectures lacked coordination and there appeared to be no minimum operating standards for the centres. The CPT would like to be informed about the arrangements for managing and operating the foreigner detention centres under the new law. 49. Centres for holding foreigners should offer material conditions and a regime appropriate to their legal situation and should be staffed by suitably-qualified personnel. Obviously, such centres should provide accommodation which is adequately furnished, clean and in a good state of repair, and which offers sufficient living space for the numbers involved. Further, care should be taken in the design and layout of the premises to avoid as far as possible any impression of a carceral environment. As regards regime activities, they should include outdoor exercise, access to a day room and to radio/television and newspapers/magazines, as well as other appropriate means of recreation. These minimum parameters should underpin every centre that is established in Greece for holding foreigners15. Instead, with respect to the centres visited, which were all opened during the last four years, the CPT was concerned to observe that its previous recommendations in this field have not been taken into account, and the conditions under which foreigners were detained could in certain cases be qualified as inhuman and degrading. 15 cf. “Twenty Guidelines on forced return”, in particular Guideline 10 parts 1 and 2 adopted on 4 May 2005 by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers (CM (2005) 40).