"The bus trip took around 12 hours, we felt like dying inside until we arrived"
| Between June 2025 and October 2025 | Heraklion; Sintiki | Anonymous | 41.3251192, 23.3519235 | Detention and Reception Reports | Greece | Hellenic Coast Guard security building in Heraklion, Special Detention Facility of Serres | Detention Centre, Informal Facility | no | yes | no | no | no | no | Egypt | Exposure to Extreme Temperature in Vehicle, Beating (with Batons/Hands/Other) | Overcrowding conditions, Lack of Access to Hot Water, Lack of Adequate Means of Rest, Lack of Free Legal Information, Lack of Information on Rights, Poor Hygiene Conditions | 6 to 12 months |
The respondent is an Egyptian national who arrived in Crete from Libya in August 2025 and was subjected to the suspension of asylum applications. He reported reaching Crete’s shore along with around 704 other people and waited for assistance. He further detailed being transferred to the port of Heraklion and being detained in the Hellenic Coast Guard security building for 16 days, along with the group he arrived with and other 40-50 people from Sudan. He also shared that he was aware of another group of people making the journey via boat from Libya at the end of July, who he believed arrived safely, only to find out once in Crete that they had drowned during the passage. He explained that some people on that boat were his friends and neighbours.
Additionally, the respondent reported having his phone taken from him and being asked to share the passcode to unlock it, without being given further explanation. He also pointed out his inability to be informed about the suspension of asylum applications while he was arbitrarily detained in Libya. As he explained: “The Minister of Migration and Asylum is being unfair to us. Personally, I have been in Libya from April 2025, without phone or internet or way to communicate with my family or outside world. The only thing I knew was that I was in unlawful detention [...] So, we did not know that the Minister had stopped the asylum for 3 months. [...] So we came and the camp is detaining us even though we did not know. What is our fault?”
In the facility, he was reportedly provided with two small bottles of water and two meals per day, but was not allowed to access showers. As he explains: “They did not give us clothes. Each time we wanted to take a shower they forbidden us.” He described that there were no windows in the facility, and that doors were closed “with metal bars.” The respondent further reported that the use of toilets needed to be authorised by officials and that people would be escorted to prevent them from escaping. He also described unsanitary conditions and lack of beds in the rooms: “We had only blankets. We used to use them as mattresses. These blankets caused us skin problems, the skin became itchy.” He also described the healthcare provision as sporadic.
The respondent reported taking part in a hunger strike, which resulted in a few people being taken away by an ambulance and then followed by violent repression.
After being detained in Crete for 16 days, the respondent was reportedly transferred to the Special Detention Facility of Serres, in Sintiki. The respondent described the journey from Crete to Sintiki as very distressing, during which they were not provided with any food or water despite the many hours spent travelling. As he recounted, after their arrival in Athens, “They moved us in mini buses which had cells closed from outside, in each cell they put four persons. The bus trip took around 12 hours, we felt like dying inside until we arrived [...] in Sintiki. The place was tight and small, and during the 12 hour trip people started vomiting. As you know we have been in the sea before, we were seasick and we vomited already before. We were very tired and we were not able to have such a ride or any trip. And we had our clothes for 16 or 17 days. Our bodies rottened after all these days. Personally, I fainted more than one time.”
Reportedly, one week after his transfer to Sintiki his phone was returned to him and he was provided with documentation in Arabic. He described overcrowded containers hosting 7 people, and up to 14 in some cases, with only some people being provided with a bed, and others being forced to sleep on blankets on the floor. The respondent reported the lack of hot water during the winter months and unaffordable prices of goods sold within the facility. He also added that pictures of detainees were taken upon arrival in the facility. He explained: “[The guards] told us we are not allowed to be here, we are not welcome here and we should go back.” In Sintiki as well the respondent described violent repressions of protests, which affected some areas of the facility more than others. He reported not experiencing violence personally, but witnessing several people being beaten by the authorities. The respondent reported that around 30 detainees had been condemned afterwards and imprisoned in a prison in Serres after a violent episode of confrontation with the facility’s “guards.”
The respondent further reported not being able to consult a lawyer and not being informed about the overall appeal procedure for his asylum application: “They did the appeal on my behalf without asking me or seeing the lawyer. And without me signing the appeal.”
Finally, the respondent described experiencing severe psychological distress since his arrival in Greece. As he related: “We have been in shock since we arrived here. We thought that we left the deprivation and the unfairness in our countries and [that] we have arrived in the human rights countries, to Europe, until we saw the reality here and we had the shock. [...] I was having psychological treatment in my country, in Egypt and I had a relapse because of what I have been through. I just went back to the treatment.”