38 flows. Thus, there was an increase of mobility and not less arrivals. Compared to the other missions, we noted a substantial change in the policy of detention duration: From then on, specific non-deportable nationalities are arrested but the authorities try to issue their deportation order as fast as possible after registration. If possible, the detainees are released within the same day, otherwise within the next days. Specifically, for the case of Fylakio detention centre, the police headquarters of Orestiada showed an interest in having high numbers of arrests to report about. All irregular migrants were arrested, brought to the detention centre and then registered in order to release most of them as soon as possible. Example: On October 10, 2011, we arrived at the detention centre at 1p.m. We saw that the authorities were in the act of releasing detainees. It was cold and rainy. Detainees were standing in the rain, waiting. They had to release 100 persons that day, as an officer told us. The procedure was finished at dawn. The released walked through the dark and the rain towards Orestiada. There were 264 registered detainees on October 9. At this point, and in the late evening, we saw new arrivals. An officer told us that all together, with the new arrivals, there were 650 detainees in the night of October 10. Even if the policy change could prevent constant overcrowding in Fylakio, the speedy procedure just transforms the nature of problems. More precisely, we could observe that there were short periods of high overcrowding (of one or two nights) and an important degree of quick in- and outflows. The officers seemed to lose track of the detainees, thus, families were likely to be separated. They were detained in different cells and sometimes released on different days. For the borderguard stations of Alexandroupolis, namely Feres, Tychero and Soufli, there was also a policy of keeping the number of detainees down. However, the headquarters of Alexandroupoli found a different solution for preventing overcrowding. New arrivals were registered outside of the detention centres, with the arrested waiting on fields, in yards, corridors and on parking lots for their papers to be issued and to leave. They had to remain until their registration was complete, under inadequate detention conditions, without any sanitary infrastructure (i.e. toilets) and exposed to the harsh weather. 117 H.Y. from Iran; October 11, 2011 – Fylakio 6. Detention and detention centres Detainees told us that, in many cases, they had waited outside for more than 3-5 days to be registered. As we witnessed for example in Tychero borderguard station, newcomers were either temporarily detained outside on a field, or in the registration room (cell 3) – a place that has no infrastructure to host detainees (no toilets, no beds, no mattresses, no showers, no door etc.). Owing to delays in the registration procedure, many detainees were registered a few days after their arrest, thus, extending the real time of their detention (thus possibly even beyond the maximum of six months). The ones to be deported were brought inside the detention centre and then transferred to other detention centres in other prefectures in order to keep numbers down (i.e. to Drama, Komotini). This policy also entailed an unsystematic procedure of transfers, with detainees not being informed about their transfer. Families were always separated and detainees were transferred to other prefectures, thus losing access to both, the legal aid provided in Evros and Rhodopi, and the opportunity to reunite with their families upon release. Finally, the detention conditions in the borderguard stations of other prefectures remain inadequate. After their transfer, detainees continue to lack access to information, legal aid etc. while their files are kept at the responsible authority of arrest. Right after her arrest, H.Y. from Iran was separated from her husband and transferred to Fylakio. »We lost our daughters on the border. Now I am in a cell with the other women and my husband is in another cell. I need him. I feel desperate.«117 S.Q. was detained for the first days in Tychero borderguard station. »I was arrested on August 22, 2011 in Tychero. They registered me one day later. The first days I stayed outside on the field. If I wanted to go to toilet, I had to hide behind a bush. Officially, my paper was issued on the 31st of August. This means that they stole some days from me. If I stay the full length of six months in detention, in my case, it will be some days longer. The days I was detained outside and not registered. (…) It is a form of torture for me to be detained inside the cell (of Tychero) and watch all the other arrested who are sitting outside and are free – the ones who were coming and going within a few hours or days. I could not understand what the difference was among us. We were not even allowed to talk with the ones