36 GREECE IRREGULAR MIGRANTS AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS ROUTINELY DETAINED IN SUBSTANDARD CONDITIONS The organization has also interviewed lawyers and relatives of detained irregular migrants and asylum-seekers and individuals who were released following detention. The section below highlights some of the concerns that arose during those visits and interviews. 5.1.1. MERSINIDIOU IMMIGRATION DETENTION CENTRE During Amnesty International’s visit in September 2009, several families with children (many of them quite young), four unaccompanied minors and a pregnant woman were held at the centre. Despite the assurances of the police authorities that there were no victims of torture at the centre, Amnesty International received credible reports that two victims of torture were detained there during that period. Amnesty International delegates saw three families with young children (a total of 15 people), sleeping in a dormitory designed for eight, and also saw individuals sleeping on mattresses on the floor. Families with children told the delegates that they were rarely provided with milk for their children. Personal hygiene products, such as shampoo and soap, were not provided by the authorities. The detainees had to place an order and pay for such products to be bought by the centre’s personnel. The water cooler was placed next to a strongly smelling sewage drain, and many of the detainees expressed fears that drinking water from there would affect their health.131 In addition, Amnesty International delegates saw children wearing adult shoes. In an interview with the centre’s social worker, delegates were told that the availability of children’s shoes was dependent upon donations by charities such as the Greek Red Cross.132 During their second visit to the centre, in December 2009, some of the detainees asked the delegates for clothes and shoes. In addition, following the end of the Aegeas programme in mid-October 2009, the centre ceased to have a social worker. In December 2009 many detainees told delegates that they had been beaten and subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment by the coastguard officers on the island of Lesvos while awaiting their transfer by boat to the Mersinidiou centre.133 They reported that approximately 30 people had been kept handcuffed for a whole day in a small minibus. They also said that the port authorities only allowed them to leave the minibus to go to the toilet every 12 hours and that food was only served once. According to the testimonies, the port authorities were taking three individuals at a time out of the minibus, allowing them only three minutes to eat their food and then kicking them before allowing them back onto the vehicle. 5.1.2. VENNA IMMIGRATION DETENTION CENTRE, RODOPI Concerns also exist about detention conditions at the Venna immigration detention centre in north-east Greece.134 Conditions at the facility led to a protest in February 2010 by 124 irregular migrants detained there.135 The irregular migrants are reported to have protested over the length of their detention and poor conditions, including lack of heating.136 As a result, the authorities are reported to have released 30 detainees. However, 42 of the migrants detained were tried by the Misdemeanours Court of Rodopi for contempt of authority and damage to property. They were convicted, and the court ordered their judicial deportation. Amnesty International received reports that the migrants were tried without the assistance of an interpreter and a lawyer. Amnesty International July 2010 Index: EUR 25/002/2010