3 1. Main Findings ■ Greece has been repeatedly criticised for its human rights violations,specifically for the appalling detention conditions for immigrants in the border region Evros. Most important human rights institutions and organisationshave published reports condemning the fundamental deficits in the Greek reception and protection system. Following this harsh criticism, the Greek government declared its commitment to improve the asylum and reception system and therefore announced a national Action Plan 2010. However, so far there have been almost no improvements. Human rights violations continue. What we have observed in Evros area is a multilevel deterrence system implemented by the Greek police and Frontex. The detention in Evros is synonimous with brutality, despair and dehumanisation. In this case, calling an emergency of «mass-immigration» has given the Greek government and the EU an excuse for violating human dignity. Access to European territory, access to international protection ■ The Greek government has begun to construct new physical barriers – a 130 km long moat and a border fence – in order to keep any migrants from entering its territory. These barriers will not keep people in need of international protection from trying to cross the border. Instead, they increase the danger of border-crossings and can lead to more persons losing their lives while trying to reach European territory and international protection. ■ People lose their lives while tying to cross the borders. The survivors stay in detention without proper care. ■ Access to international protection is not guaranteed in the Evros region. Protection seekers who have entered Greek territory often cannot file an asylum application with the responsible authorities and are deterred from doing so. are cases of wrong nationality and age assessmet, while there is no provision to challenge the procedure regarding this decision. ■ Asylum seekers are automatically detained. Regularly, they are being detained for the maximum detention period of up to six months, longer than persons who have not applied for international protection. Detention functions as a deterrence measure for applying for asylum. ■ Migrants and refugees are deprived of basic rights in detention. There is no access to effective remedy against deportation and detention. There is no legal aid, no information, no interpretation. Readmissions and risk of refoulement ■ The authorities automatically issue deportation orders against almost everybody without any individual assessment of the case. ■ There are cases of removals of people who have requested international protection. ■ Amendments of the Readmission Protocol between Greece and Turkey facilitate the deportation to the country of origin via Turkey without respect of the international obligations and exposing the readmitted to further violations in Turkey. ■ There is a risk of direct or indirect refoulement in violation of human rights law and the principle of non-refoulement. No adequate treatment for vulnerable groups ■ No adequate reception conditions are provided for vulnerable cases and people in need of international protection during detention and after release. Lack of legal safeguards and remedy ■ All new arrivals are automatically put into detention, without any individual assessment of the case. ■ Vulnerable cases such as mental or physically sick or victims of torture stay in detention which deteriorates their health condition. ■ A system to clearly identify age, nationality protection status or vulnerability of new arrivals does not exist. Consequently, there is no adequate treatment or referral for particularly vulnerable persons, such as unaccompanied minors, victims of torture etc, or protection seekers. There ■ Unaccompanied minors continue to be in detention under deplorable conditions. In praxis, they have no legal representation. There are not enough reception centers and the existing ones do not provide address the basic needs of the underage adequately.