"They disgraced me and made me feel that I am dirty, disgusting. They are afraid to touch me."

The respondent reported arriving in Crete in July 2025 and was subjected to the suspension of asylum applications. Reportedly, he was rescued at sea by the Greek Coast Guard while also being beaten during the rescue operation. As he further explained: “They also beat us. While rescuing us, they were beating us in the sea, the Greek [Coast] Guards. They beat me in my stomach in their own boat after they rescued us.” He added that minor and elderly people were also onboard the same boat.Only people in their 20s and 30s reportedly faced physical violence at the hands of the Coast Guard. 

 

The respondent reported being detained for 7 days in an informal detention facility, later identified as being the Former Agia Exhibition Centre in Chania. He reported insufficient food provision and no access to showers or items for personal hygiene, such as soap and shampoo. He added that detainees had to use two taps of cold water in order to be able to wash. He explained that those taps were also used by people held in the facility to drink water, as they were reportedly provided with one bottle each only once upon arrival. He described the space as a big warehouse of 100 square meters in size shared between 700 to 800 people. As he further explained: “Everybody was sharing the same space, families, Sudanese, people from Egypt, minors. We separated ourselves, made space for women on one side and men on one side. There were no walls or any other thing to separate us. It was something like a [...] storehouse for clothes.” He further detailed that people were only provided with blankets but no beds or mattresses to sleep on and that they received medical screening upon arrival in the facility. 

 

He also reported not receiving any information nor official documentation, and that his phone was taken and returned when he was transferred to the mainland, in the Special Detention Facility of Serres, in Sintiki. He added: “They [the authorities] took pictures of us, they took our names. We received documents only upon arrival in Sintiki. They took photos with their phones and we didn't ask why as they would not give us any information anyway.”

 

The respondent reported being transferred to Sintiki in early August, although he added that the authorities inaccurately recorded his arrival date as two days later than the actual one. He reported about the poor quality of the food provided in the facility, getting worse with time. He further detailed that there was no staff in charge of cleaning in the facility and that, therefore, the detainees themselves organised cleaning shifts, while only being provided with gloves and trashbags but no cleaning products or items for personal hygiene. He added: “We used to give money to Sudanese ladies to buy us hygiene items from outside, but now the authorities prohibit that. The women are also asylum seekers, they [...] were able to move freely and could go out and buy from outside. There is a market coming [in our section] but it is very expensive and does not have the products we actually need like soap and shampoo.”

 

With regards to healthcare provision, he recounted the availability of a doctor on site and the possibility of being transferred to a hospital if needed. The respondent explained that an Arabic interpreter was present inside the facility. However, he also recalled an instance in which he was brought to the hospital outside the facility and was unable to communicate with the medical staff there since interpretation services were not available. As a consequence, he did not receive appropriate medical attention, as he added: “So, they handcuffed me and they brought me back to the facility.” He further detailed: “[the authorities] always use a paper to grab my phone, inhumanely. They disgraced me and made me feel that I am dirty, disgusting. They are afraid to touch me. Outside, it is not allowed to use the phone until you are back in the facility.” He further explained being mistreated by the authorities more generally, being rudely dismissed when requesting information and even “being threatened with a stick”. In his words: “They order us to step back and not get closer. They also insult us verbally, they say to us “malaka”. [...] The treatment makes you feel that you are disgusting.”

 

The respondent detailed having submitted an application for asylum and being rejected, however, he also added that he was not involved in the appeal process, but rather this was submitted “automatically” by the authorities in the camp on his behalf. He further reported receiving a document containing inaccurate information, such as a supposed apprehension outside the camp and a subsequent release after providing “the white card”, despite the respondent not having been allowed to exit the structure since his transfer. He reported not receiving adequate legal advice as well as the required interpretation service to deal with legal matters. He further reported prolonged detention periods, and added that even those with serious health issues remained detained indefinitely. As he detailed: “I have a friend who has kidney problems and he is very sick but they did not release him. [...] Other people went to other facilities and were released. But here they give us papers of detention of 50 days, every time this paper is finished, they give us a new one. [...] When we ask when we will be released, they tell us ‘we do not know’, we have no answer.” Finally, he mentioned cases of returns: “There is an organisation which comes and provides info about getting back to our country and taking 1000 euro. [...] My cousin was with me, then they took him to Menidi and then deported him to Egypt.”