don’t ask for asylum… They only ask for asylum when they are in court and afraid to be deported. Some seek asylum in order to get work permits. Even so, very few ask for asylum here…. We usually detain adults from one month to 40 days. It doesn’t depend on nationality, unless they ask for asylum. If they ask for asylum on the first day, then they don’t stay long. If they ask for asylum later, then they stay for the full three months.223 Recent detainees at Samos gave a contradictory account of the impact of nationality and asylum requests on the length of detention. A recently released Algerian said: In general, if you ask for asylum, you stay longer. Usually Somalis and Afghans are held for 10 days and then released, but Palestinians, Sudanese, and Nigerians are held for 55 days. No one admits be to being Iranian. I saw one Iraqi, but he was released after 37 days. One Iraqi family was released after seven days, but there are other families that stay 44 days. For teenage boys, the majority are Afghans; most are released after 10 to 15 days and sent to Athens. I asked for asylum inside the camp. I stayed for 32 days, but I did not get a red card. I only got the white paper.224 UNHCR sent a letter to the head of the General Police Directorate of the North East Aegean Isles in November 2007 that criticized the practice of increasing the period of detention for detainees who seek asylum. UNHCR said, “[I]n areas of the North East Aegean, aliens who entered the country illegally and applied for asylum were detained for the maximum, three-month period, while persons from the same nationality who did not want to apply for asylum were freed earlier, with an average detention period of 2030 days.”225 223 Human Rights Watch interview with Ionnis Kotsampasis, Chief of Police, Samos, May 30, 2008. 224 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-29), Samos, May 30, 2008. 225 Letter from UNHCR to the head of the General Police Directorate of the N-E Aegean Isles (GREAT/HCR/188/29-11-2007), cited in Unaccompanied Minors Asylum Seekers in Greece, a study on the treatment of unaccompanied minors applying for asylum in Greece commissioned by UNHCR’s Office in Greece, April 2008, pp. 48-49. 89 Human Rights Watch November 2008