Input to the OHCHR Secretary-General Report on the Human Rights of Migrants: Key challenges relating to immigration detention in Greece

Joint submission from I Have Rights and Mobile Info Team, with the support of the Border Violence Monitoring Network.

In this submission we present key challenges and recommendations relating to formal immigration detention and de facto detention in Greece. We identify systemic challenges, as well as contextual differences, in the practices of both Pre-Removal Detention Centres (PRDCs) on the Greek mainland and Closed Controlled Access Centres (CCACs) on the Aegean island of Samos. The submission distinguishes formal immigration detention in the PRDCs and what we argue amounts to de facto detention in the CCACs, a form of detention which we note is absent from the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/76/172 (2021). The Greek State imposes measures of containment that we affirm clearly contravene several aspects of the Resolution and amount to an unlawful deprivation of liberty and inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of ECHR Articles 3 and 5.

I Have Rights and Mobile Info Team call for:

• An end to arbitrary detention of third country nationals and asylum seekers, including minors
• Adequate access to free legal aid and translation assistance for people in detention
• An independent monitoring mechanism to investigate allegations of human rights violations in detention.