42 GREECE IRREGULAR MIGRANTS AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS ROUTINELY DETAINED IN SUBSTANDARD CONDITIONS 6. CONCLUSIONS Asylum-seekers and irregular migrants are not criminals and should not be treated as if they are. Nevertheless, Amnesty International’s research over the last year has led to the conclusion that asylum-seekers and irregular migrants in Greece are detained as a matter of course, rather than as a last resort. The government is failing to abide by its international obligations to ensure that detention is a measure of last resort which should only be imposed if other alternative measures are not possible, and only when it can be justified in each individual case. It is also failing in its requirements to ensure that detainees are held in conditions that comply with international standards. Furthermore, the detainees are denied or have limited access to various forms of basic assistance, including legal assistance, interpreters and medical support. Lack of legal assistance denies detainees the opportunity to challenge their detention before a judicial authority and can result in prolonged detention in poor conditions. Such treatment of detained asylum-seekers and irregular migrants can discourage individuals who are in need of international protection from seeking that protection. Amnesty International is also concerned that unaccompanied children continue to be detained, in some instances for long periods and in poor conditions, as a result of legislation that permits their detention. There are insufficient special reception centres for minors, as well as systemic failures concerning guardianship. Amnesty International notes that detention conditions in the vast majority of immigration detention centres are inadequate or poor. Even in immigration detention centres where conditions and facilities were adequate (Samos) during the organization’s visit, lack of capacity and overcrowding at certain times of the year lead to a reported deterioration in conditions. Poor conditions have also been identified or reported in borderguard stations and police stations used for immigration detention. The government must also address existing deficiencies in the current legislation including the provisions criminalizing irregular entry and exit out of the country, the provision allowing for administrative deportation for being prosecuted for an offence punishable by a minimum of three months, and the lack of effective mechanisms to challenge a detention order and to complain about detention conditions. Recent steps taken by the Greek Government, such as the release of a large number of irregular migrants detained in police cells for the purposes of deportation, along with plans to reform the reception system for migrants and asylum-seekers arriving in Greece in an irregular manner, by establishing screening centres at the country’s points of entry, are important and necessary first steps to address the lack of appropriate facilities for arriving asylum-seekers and irregular migrants and the practice of systematic detention, but they will not be sufficient to meet Greece’s international human rights obligations. Irregular migrants and asylum-seekers will still be subject to a form of detention in such proposed centres, even if they are allowed free movement inside the centres. Amnesty Amnesty International July 2010 Index: EUR 25/002/2010