Faiza told us: “In the first section that we were inside, we didn’t have hot water and also it was a problem in the toilet, like once you want to flush the water, there is no water system to get rid of the toilet water. They had to make hole in the floor. When you flush the water from the toilet, it goes down the floor. In the second section we had hot water, it had the same problems with flushing the toilet water though, so we also had to make a hole in the floor to get rid of the water from the bathroom.” Like Florence, both Louis and Faiza mentioned that detainees would clean the toilets and showers themselves if they had their own money to purchase cleaning products from the supermarket. Meanwhile, Ismail told us that, as there was no door outside the toilet, he and his fellow detainees hung a blanket in its place. He additionally explained that the supermarket would not sell detainees cleaning products, such as chlorine, that could be used to self-harm. However, Jeanne noted that she was occasionally provided cleaning products by the police and would otherwise buy them herself. Joud told us that he understood that detained persons were provided cleaning products once a month, but that for the period he was in detention, they were only provided these once, and only because, to his knowledge, an external organisation was due to visit to monitor conditions in the PRDC. At other times, detained persons would buy cleaning products themselves. The poor levels of hygiene in the detention centre often caused participants evident distress. Ismail told us: “The cleaning condition was really bad – the toilet, the rooms, it made me think I don’t want to make an application for asylum, I just wanted to get out of detention, no matter how”. Several participants also described the conditions as being “disgusting”, “dirty”, “uncomfortable” and in “bad condition”. Overall, toilets and showers were frequently described as being in poor condition, and detained persons were not consistently provided products to clean them. Participants also reported that they lacked regular access to essential hygiene and sanitary products. Florence told us that she was menstruating when she was arrested and detained and asked the attending police for sanitary products. She was told they did not have any and was told to instead ask a friend for these. Florence asked a friend living in the RIC to deliver sanitary products to the PRDC, and, after spending two days in detention, she was finally provided sanitary products by the police. She explained that it was very difficult coping without the necessary provisions over this time. During the rest of her time in detention, Florence’s friend in the RIC delivered toilet rolls, sanitary napkins, soap and toothpaste to the PRDC for her. Florence explained that, although she had asked for these items many times, they were not given to her. Meanwhile, Louis explained that he and persons detained with him were not provided with toilet paper, and instead saved the paper that wrapped the cutlery distributed with meals to use in the toilet. He also told us that detained persons were generally only given one tube of toothpaste every two months, to share between two people. Joud also reported that he was given toothpaste and soap ahead of the monitoring delegation’s visit, while Haroun told us: “We have to buy everything on our own, they don’t offer anything. Within the 6 months that I am here, they only provided us once with sanitary products, the size of a cup, full of chlorine. And also Colgate (toothpaste) and a liquid for cleaning”. Several participants also reported having problems with mosquitoes, bed bugs, cockroaches, rodents, and stray cats in the PRDC. Faiza told us that mice and cats entered her room, and that “the floor had holes, so all the rodents and the cockroaches were coming outside it”. Saeed reported: “There are a lot of small creatures jumping on my bed and head when I’m sleeping, it’s really inhuman. I’m not like in my mind, I think it’s all like a nightmare, it’s not real”, while Joud told us “we got a lot of small creatures, mosquitos and bugs” in the containers. 52 DETENTION OF MIGRANTS ON THE ISLAND OF KOS