"Once we did not have water for a complete 2 days, even for drinking, cleaning or toilets."

The respondent reported arriving in Greece from Turkey at the beginning of 2026. He was reportedly taken to a camp in the area of Thessaloniki, where he went through his asylum procedures. After receiving a rejection of his application, he was reportedly given a document stating that he must leave the Greek territory. The respondent also explained never receiving cash assistance from the government.

 

The respondent reported being later apprehended at the Albanian border by authorities to which he referred to as the Albanian police. He was reportedly detained for 20 days. He described the behaviour of an Albanian police officer who requested a €5,000 bribe in exchange for his release. After 20 days, he reported being handcuffed and transferred back to the Greek territory in a van.  He was then reportedly detained for another 20 days in a police station which he located one hour and a half away from Ioannina, near the Albanian border. He added that he was the only person detained at the police station: “I was alone, no one was around me, I felt lonely there.” He reported being only provided with one meal per day, and denied any requests for additional portions: "I was asking for more food but they said ‘we are not responsible for food’.” As a consequence, he spent the entirety of the 200 euros in his possession in order to buy food.

 

After spending 20 days in the police station, the respondent was reportedly transferred to the Pre-Removal Detention Centre in Corinth, where he spent more than 4 months. Upon arrival, the respondent was reportedly explained that he would be detained for 24 months, with the only way out being a positive decision to another asylum application. The respondent explained that he submitted an asylum application while detained, but received another rejection and was subsequently told that he would be detained for 24 months.

 

The respondent described the detention centre as “worse than a jail”. He explained that the building in which he was detained is separated into four sections, each section holding between 17 and 20 people. The sections were reportedly separated from each other with fences, open 4 hours a day, enabling detainees to access the outdoor yard only during this time. One video shared by the respondent shows two outdoor spaces separated by a high metal fence with barbed wire on the top.

 

Upon arrival at the facility, the respondent was reportedly provided with a blanket and bedsheets which he said were insufficient to cover his needs. He also described the mattress of the bed he was supplied with as “super dirty”. He added: “When I removed my blanket from the bed, I saw red spots on the mattress. The mattress had many holes.” The respondent further stated that the facility lacked sufficient  beds, resulting in some residents having to sleep on mattresses on the floor. He mentioned that the light did not turn off at night, which made it difficult to sleep, reportedly forcing detainees to use different strategies to cover their eyes.

 

Additionally, he described very poor hygiene conditions. In his words: “Even animals don't live in this situation”. Inside the room, the respondent described: “you can see many red spots like blood on the wall”, and reported the presence of “a lot of insects”. He explained that the section in which he was detained contained 3 toilets, to be used by 20 people, described as “super dirty”. Videos of the bathrooms further shared by the respondent show garbage bags blocking the toilets and two broken showers. Only cold water was reportedly available in the facility, with frequent cuts. He also reported being only provided with one small bottle of shampoo and one razor per month, which he explained barely covered his needs for two weeks. He added that he could not afford to buy more hygiene items from outside the centre and that his requests for more products were denied. He further detailed that “more than 1000 emails” were sent by detainees to the centre’s administration, and that all remained unanswered. Finally, he mentioned that a lot of detainees were affected by scabies and skin diseases, as a result of the hygiene conditions.

 

The respondent reported insufficient and inadequate access to healthcare. He explained: “There is a person inside the camp, and we do not know if he is a doctor or not. Most of the time when we are sick, we tell the police that we need help, and that we want to see the doctor. At first the police do not answer. After two to three hours, the police take us to that person. But that person is not examining us. I am not seeing any medical stuff in his room. Each time we are sick we go there to take painkillers. But they are not checking us to know our problem. All the time [he is] just giving us painkillers.” Additionally, he mentioned the absence of interpretation services during the medical consultation in the facility, which resulted in patients having to rely on a fellow detainee to translate for them with medical staff: “there is no interpreter from the government there. But there is a person [...] in the camp there. He speaks Greek. And he is doing translation for everyone there. [...] He has the same situation. He is also in the camp with us.” Finally, the respondent explained that access to the hospital outside the facility is particularly complicated: “most of the time, they are not taking you to the hospital.” While he explained being allowed to go to the hospital once - handcuffed by the police during the transfer - he gave the example of a friend affected by a tooth infection, who was unable to access appropriate healthcare: “his face got swollen but they did not take him to the hospital. He asked a lot of help, but he had only 3 painkillers.”

 

Additionally, the respondent reported that the food provided was of poor quality and quantity. He described: “We were given breakfast [...], a small piece of cake, it is not enough for the birds, we are humans. And also they give us a small juice, but it was not real juice, it was powder juice, it is like water. About lunch, they gave multiple things. Sometimes they gave beans but they are not well cooked, [...], and other times they gave us some cheese but not a good quality.” He also reported that detainees were not provided with bottled water and instead had to drink from the tap: “they did not provide a bottle of water for us. There is the pipeline water inside the camp and he was saying you can drink from there. Even though there are no glasses to use, we use our hands to drink”. However, the respondent explained that water cuts were frequent in the centre, leaving detainees without access to water sometimes for up to 2-3 days: "Once we did not have water for a complete 2 days, even for drinking, cleaning or toilets. After two days, we made a lot of noise, we were talking with lawyers, and were telling the camp that we do not have water. After a couple of minutes, 10 to 12 policemen came with [water] bottles. They entered our rooms and they were beating some people. And they were using Greek and English words to them: 'you have to shut up, you have to shut up'. [...] The day after they fixed the water issue, not the same day, the day after.” The respondent further clarified that he identified the authorities repressing the demonstration as police officers thanks to their uniform and the guns they were holding around their hips.