ANNUAL SPECIAL REPORT 2017
51
flow of financing for the Pre-removal Centers from the regular funds of the
relevant European fund with the required completion of the relevant internal
procedures of the Administration and the central managing authority. The
detention conditions in the Pre-removal Centers, at least in some of them,
must change immediately. Under the weight of the rapid developments, the
spotlight of the media and the criticism turned towards other areas of the
management of the refugee/migrant issue, leaving the Pre-removal Centers,
at least for now, in the shadows. A modern state governed by the rule of law
must however manage rights issues regardless of the constantly changing
media coverage or criticism”.
In the same report, expanding and substantiating the impression of neglect
of right, the Greek Ombudsman noted (page 88) that there is none more
cynical admission to the disregard of fundamental rights than the belief
that the “construction of detention facilities will serve as a deterrent to the
creation of new migrant flows”. Thus, the deprivation of personal liberty is
no longer an exceptional and necessary measure to achieve the purpose of
forced removal, as imposed by domestic law and the Returns Directive, but
a policy instrument, part of which appears to be the artificial maintaining of
poor conditions, as a tool for deterring the flow of new refugees. However,
as the Greek Ombudsman constantly reminds, the policy of the extended
administrative detention has reached its limits and already constitutes part
of the problem and not the solution, given that there is no infrastructure
and expertise to ensure adequate guarantees for the deprivation of personal
liberty in mass spaces.
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