48 8. Lack of legal safeguards ■ The detainees in Evros area are deprived of all their basic rights, such as the right to information, to unrestricted access to the outside world, to have important information translated, to access a lawyer, to legal aid and to effective legal remedies while in detention. 8.1. Lack of information In Evros, as well as in Rhodopi region, detainees are not provided with any information regarding the reason and duration of their detention, the possibility of their readmission or deportation, or about the legal remedies against detention and deportation. They are neither informed about their legal status, nor about their right to seek international protection, the details of the asylum procedure. They do not know if they are pending readmission to Turkey, nor which nationality they have been assigned. When a detainee is taken out of the cell, he/she is not informed whether he/she will be brought to another detention centre, readmitted or deported, or taken to the asylum registration. »Actually, detention here is a form of torture. I will tell you some examples: First of all, we have no access to the outside world, meaning we do not have any newspapers, radio or TV. We don’t know what is going on outside. We are deprived of our right to information. For example, some inmates from Syria need to know what is going on in their country, because there is conflict and they left their families back there. In order to know if they are alive, they have to call home which they are often not allowed to do. This is inhumane! Another form of deprivation of the right to information concerns ourselves. We need to know what is going to happen to us and what our legal status is. All the papers here are in Greek language. I have once signed a paper that I could not understand. When I wanted to resist and not sign it, the officers in Tychero threatened to beat us. I still don’t know what I signed. Some Syrians had also signed a paper they could not understand, and then they were deported. Besides, the police never inform us where they are bringing us and what for – only in the very last second when pulling us out of the cell. When they wanted to bring me to Alexandroupolis for the registration of my asylum claim, they just came without any announcement early in the morning at 6 o’clock and pulled me out of the cell. They woke me up, insulted me and put handcuffs on my hands. I thought they are going to deport me. I repeated- 157 S.Q. from Iran; October 14, 2011 – Feres 158 H.H. from Iran; February 28. 2011 – Soufli ly asked where they were bringing me, but nobody replied. I was brought to Feres where I had to wait for three hours outside in the cold for the transfer to Alexandroupolis – only then an officer told me where they were bringing me. The second time, when I was going to be transferred from Tychero to Feres again, I was not informed in advance, so I was not able to collect all my personal belongings. When they came for me, I was playing chess with other inmates. The police shouted my name and ›baggage, baggage‹. Outside, they told me that they were bringing me to Feres.«157 »The police enter the cells calling names and then they say: ›deport, deport, deport…!‹«158 The deportation and detention decisions are issued only in Greek language and the context of the decision is never really explained to the detainees. The same holds true for decisions on asylum claims. »We get one paper which is for the six months and one which is for the fingerprints. I don’t know what these papers say.«159 For those who are detained in Fylakio (Orestiada’s Police Directorate), the deportation and detention decisions are never handed to the detainees. The deportation and detention decisions issued by the Alexandroupolis police directorate contain the same identical phrase: »The detainee has been informed about his rights in English language«. Yet, most of them do not speak or understand English. During our missions, we never met a detainee who was aware about his/her status and rights. There was no distribution of information leaflets about the asylum procedure, or with contact details of NGOs, the UNHCR or local Bar Association contact details. On April 12, 2011, we met 29 women, who were in detention in Feres border guard station. Even though they had their deportation decisions, they were neither aware of the context of the paper, nor of their registered nationality, nor of the reasons for the duration of their detention. None of them was aware of the fact that they were in detention pending deportation to their country of registered origin. 159 B.M. from Iran; December 19, 2010 – Soufli