Monitoring visit to Petrou Ralli pre-removal detention centre Petrou Ralli has been housing immigration detainees since 2005. The NPM considered it to be the worst of the facilities in Athens. The CPT’s last report on Petrou Ralli had also been critical: ‘The material conditions were very poor. Most of the barred cells in the four male wings on the second floor were filthy, stuffy and infested; mattresses and blankets were generally worn and dirty. The communal sanitary annexes were unhygienic and in a poor state of repair and detainees complained that they did not receive sufficient hygiene and cleaning products. Further, detainees were locked in their cells for much of the day and the delegation found that outdoor exercise was not offered on a daily basis to all detainees and, at times, the amount of time offered hardly exceeded 15 minutes.’ (CPT 2017a: 33) On arrival at Petrou Ralli, the NPM team had a meeting with the senior director of Athens’ immigration detention facilities who was based in Petrou Ralli. The meeting took about the same amount of time as the rest of the visit. The senior director was keen to tell the NPM his concerns and, in particular, the need for funding to help solve the multitude of problems he and his staff faced. He mentioned difficulties such as rubbish collection, sewage problems and transfers to and from hotspots. He said that Petrou Ralli was otherwise a quiet centre. Each morning, the director said he received information from prisons about who would be brought to Petrou Ralli as people were often detained for ‘reasons of public order’ after their sentences had been completed. He said that the average stay was 6 months but that 10 people had been detained at the centre for longer than six months. Ninety detainees were waiting to be taken to the asylum service to start the process. Some could have asylum appointments over Skype. However, the director wanted detainees to be moved more quickly to Amygdaleza detention centre, where applications could more easily be managed. He felt the asylum service and police did not operate well together. They sometimes had two files for the same person, which caused delays. He said that when vulnerable people came to Petrou Ralli, the centre sent requests for them to be released but the administrative procedures took much time. The NPM asked about interpreters. The director said that they had lost funding for interpreters and psychological services in 2015. They had managed to find an Arabic-speaking police officer and one who spoke Turkish, and also occasionally used detainees to interpret. 25