GREECE IRREGULAR MIGRANTS AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS ROUTINELY DETAINED IN SUBSTANDARD CONDITIONS 19 The practice of prosecutorial authorities charging irregular migrants and asylum-seekers with irregular entry is not consistent. On Samos, authorities are reported to refrain, in most cases, from bringing criminal charges for irregular entry into the country, except when the individual is accused of trafficking. Prosecutorial authorities in Alexandroupoli (Evros) told Amnesty International that they also refrain from initiating criminal charges against migrants arrested for irregular entry, except when the individuals arrested are suspected traffickers or in possession of false documents.61 In addition, public prosecutors in Alexandroupoli spoke of difficulties in securing a qualified interpreter at the time that irregular migrants and asylumseekers are brought before them. On the other hand, the prosecutorial authorities in Orestiada (Evros) told Amnesty International that they made such decisions on a case by case basis.62 If charges are not brought, foreign nationals apprehended for irregular entry are issued with an administrative deportation order usually accompanied by an order for the continuation of detention. Amnesty International has been informed of cases where irregular migrants and asylumseekers (including families with small children), convicted for use of false documents and/or irregular exit out of the country, remained in police stations and/or prison facilities for many months following the court order for deportation. A family of Hazara asylum-seekers from Afghanistan (father, mother, three-year old daughter and the mother’s brother) had been arrested for attempting to leave the country with false documents in December 2008. The criminal court gave the adults a suspended six-month sentence, a €3,000 fine, and ordered their judicial deportation. The family was reported to have been tried without the presence of a lawyer or an interpreter. They were detained together for four months in a borderguard station in the north of Greece under reportedly poor conditions, and were subsequently separated. The mother and her daughter were transferred to a women’s prison facility in Thiva and the two men to Korydallos prison. The family did not manage to apply for asylum until their transfer from the borderguard station to the prison facilities. The mother is reported to have only learnt the grounds of her detention after her transfer. In August 2009, the Thiva Misdemeanours Court rejected the mother’s objections against the judicial deportation order, despite the fact that her deportation could not be effected because of her status as an asylum-seeker and of the fact that she did not have a passport.63 The mother and daughter remained in detention for 15 months (they were released in March 2010) solely for the purpose of effecting the mother’s judicial deportation.64 During Amnesty International’s visit to Athens airport detention area in May 2010, the police authorities said that irregular migrants and asylum-seekers arrested at the airport for attempting to leave the country with false documents usually received a suspended sentence for use of false documents and were ordered to pay judicial expenses (€87). This was converted to an eight-day sentence, served in the airport detention facility, if they were unable to pay. The authorities said that, following completion of that period, the individuals concerned remain in detention until the Attika Aliens’ Police Directorate had carried out the necessary steps for effecting administrative deportation procedures. While the police authorities claimed that the time of imprisonment and subsequent administrative detention in these circumstances did not exceed two weeks, some detainees told Amnesty International that they had been detained for a month – and in one case 55 days. Index: EUR 25/002/2010 Amnesty International July 2010