23/4/2012
The organization “Proasyl” with the collaboration of the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) present the Report entitled “Walls of Shame”. The aim of the report was the recording and evaluation of the problems that asylum seekers and immigrants in detention are dealing with in the Detention Centers of Evros.
The research took place in a period characterized by the repeated convictions of Greece from the European Court of Human Rights and the severe critique from international organizations due to the violation of human rights and the inhuman conditions at the Detention Centers of Evros. The same period is also characterized by the implementation of the Presidential Decree 114/2010 and the presence of Frontex and RABIT in the area.
The report is the outcome of lawyers’ missions in the area, which took place from August 2010 until October 2011 at the Detention Centres at Feres, Tihero, Soufli and Filakio. The data collected during that period concerns vulnerable groups in detention (unaccompanied minors, asylum seekers, victims of torture, people in danger in case of deportation or refoulement, as well as people whose nationality and age are wrongly recorded by the authorities).
The main issues of the Report are, among others:
- The accessibility of these vulnerable groups in Europe, through Evros, and the international protection that these people are entitled to, as well.
- The lack of legal safeguards which guarantee their basic human rights
- The duration of detention, even of minors, in inhuman and degrading conditions
- The lack of medical aid
- The violation of non refoulement
- The procedure of asylum under conditions of detention
- The police violence inside the detention centres
- The missing persons at borders
The conclusion of this Report can be summarized in one phrase:
“Europe builds up visible and invisible walls against people in need of protection, exposing them to danger, leading them to despair, misery, and, in many cases, even death”
