The Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) released a statement yesterday that it had completed a one week (20-27 Jan.) ad hoc mission to Greece “to assess the concrete steps taken by the Greek authorities to implement long-standing recommendations, in particular those contained in the reports on the CPT’s visits of September 2005, February 2007, September 2008 and September 2009. In the course of the visit, the CPT’s delegation examined the treatment and conditions of detention of migrants held in aliens detention centres and in police and border guard stations, particularly in the Attica and Evros regions….” The CPT report to the Greek government is scheduled to be delivered in March 2011.
Among the detention centres visited by the CPT were several Border Guard stations in Evros and the “Filakio Special holding facility for illegal immigrants” where many of persons apprehended along the land border of Greece and Turkey are being detained in deplorable conditions. Doctors Without Borders released a press statement last week describing the conditions at the Greek detention centres in Evros as unbearable, inhumane, and having reached an emergency situation.
Click here for CPT Press Release.
Click here for Doctors Without Borders Press Release.
MIGRANTS AT SEA 
Greece: Detained Migrants in Unbearable and Inhumane Conditions
Immediate Action Needed to Improve Living Conditions in Detention Facilities in Evros to Ensure Physical and Mental Health of Migrants
Athens, January 26, 2011—Migrants and asylum seekers held in police stations and detention centers in Greece are living in unbearable and inhumane conditions, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today. MSF medical teams have been assisting detained migrants and asylum seekers at three border police stations and are witnessing a situation that has reached emergency levels.