30 6. Detention and detention centres protect them from the cold. There is also no toilet. If a detainee of cell three has to urinate, police guards would guard him/ her to the fields or he/she had to urinate through the bars into the corridor. Tychero detention centre 6.3.1. Tychero borderguard station The detention centre in Tychero – situated next to the rails – is a former wheat warehouse, transformed into a detention facility. It’s being used as a borderguard station. The few long and narrow windows, the only source of ventilation, look out over the street, where there’s a parking lot full of police and military vehicles. But the windows are too high to get at and to breathe. The area is surveilled from inside and outside by cameras. On the back of the building, there are three cells. Each of them has one window that looks out over a narrow corridor, towards the railway tracks and Turkey. In the first cell there are usually men and boys, the second one is routinely used for mixed detention – for families, women, minors and some men. The third room is the place for the registration procedure. Nevertheless, it is also often being used as temporary cell. There’s no cleaning service for the cells. Detainees reported that none of the toilets had a door and most of the time at least one was clogged. »In the cell that I was transferred to, there were two toilets and one shower. There was one loose door for the three so we had to move it back and forth in order to have some privacy. The toilets had no water and no electricity. No light inside the toilets. Once I wanted to go to the toilet. I thought there was nobody inside. I couldn’t see anything. Only when I suddenly saw a bright smile with white teeth I understood that there was an African inmate on the toilet.«87 Most of the time there was no hot water or heating, nor any cooling during summer. Furthermore, the few mattresses and blankets available were all filthy. None of the detainees was provided with towels or additional clothing. There’s no supply of personal hygiene or cleaning products. Twice a day a meal is served. As reported by the detainees, it is inadequate and insufficient. Those who can afford it purchase additional food from a vendor who visits the borderguard station and takes orders. S.A. from Iran said: »We didn’t get a lot of food inside prison. We had to buy some additional food when we were hungry. After some days we ran out of money and then depended on other detainees to give us something.«88 With an average number of detainees of 180 in two cells (in the period August 2010- April 2011), the individual space for each of them (when divided by the size of the cells) amounts to 40cm2. The cells are often so crowded that nobody can stretch and lie down; it is only possible to sit. Occasionally, detainees even have to sit and sleep inside the toilets due to lack of space. Others sleep in a small storage space on top of the door or on another elevated one next to the windows at the back. In the third room there are neither beds nor mattresses, only some sleeping bags that MSF provided. During December and January 2010/11 temperatures fell under -10 degree Celsius. There was no door to close in order 87 S.Q. from Iran; October 14, 2011 – Feres (former detainee of Tychero) The registration rooms is also used as provisory cell although it has neither beds nor toilettes or showers 88 S.A. from Iran; October 12, 2011 – Tychero