15 He was subsequently handcuffed and taken to right must apply on in so far as is strictly the police station in the city centre where, necessary.”25 Given that, the CJEU held that, “They put me in a cage with iron bars.” The police “the concept of ‘public order’ entails, in any then released Maher at approximately 9:00 PM, event, the existence — in addition to the informing him that he was free to go back to the disturbance of the social order which any CCAC but without providing him with infringement of the law involves — of a transportation. As such, Maher had relatives in genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat the city and was able to stay with them; affecting one of the fundamental interests of however, others have reported having to sleep society.”26 outside at night until they can catch a bus. None of the cases referred to in this report and Upon reaching the CCAC the next day at around 8:30 AM, Maher was questioned by the security personnel as to why he did not return to the CCAC last night. After explaining that he was at the police station, he went to his old room in the CCAC, where he slept for two hours before being awoken by police and transferred to the PRDC. represented by Equal Rights met this standard. All six clients were accused of low-level offenses, all of which were misdemeanors and some based on evidence as flimsy as associating with another asylum seeker accused of a crime. Further, although Greek asylum law does not define the term “threat to public order”, it does provide a list of particularly serious crimes for As observed by Equal Rights, this practice which the authorities may exclude someone amounts to arbitrary and unlawful detention. from subsidiary protection.27 However, none Of the six people referred to in this section, all of the six men were accused of particularly six received detention orders that mentioned serious crimes. In fact, none of the six men were their penal cases, with five of them detained ever convicted of the crime of which they were because they were a threat to public order. In accused during the time Equal Rights one case, the detention order did not even cite represented them. Five of the six cases were at public order grounds, but only explained that the stage of pre-investigation between the the client was a risk of absconding because of Prosecutor and the police security department, his penal case. meaning no official charges had been brought, Although EU and Greek law do allow the while only one case reached the state where the authorities to detain asylum seekers if they are a threat to public order, the CJEU has set an extremely high bar for when states may invoke this ground, stressing that “in view of the importance of the right to liberty enshrined in Public Prosecutor was drafting the official charge. Consequently, Equal Rights concluded that the authorities were not detaining people because they represented a genuine threat to public order, but rather as an arbitrary Article 6 of the Charter and the gravity of the punishment for their run-ins with the police. interference with that right which detention In March 2023, Equal Rights filed two represents, limitations on the exercise of the objections to detention on behalf of two clients Case C-601/15 PPU J.N., Judgment of 15 February 2016, para. 56. Ibid. para 67. 27 Art. 16(1)(b) L. 4939/2022 25 26 ‘Still detained and forgotten’ – Update on Detention Policies, Practices, and Conditions on Kos 2023/24