The Council of Europe’s European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) acknowledges significant on-going challenges that the Greek authorities face to deal with the high number of foreign nationals arriving in the country, but based on a visit in April last year, it received yet more credible allegations of physical ill-treatment by the police, including slaps, punches, kicks and baton blows.
In this new CPT report, published along with a Greek government response, the allegations related primarily to detention places in the Evros region (the Fylakio Pre-removal Centre, Fylakio Reception and Identification Centre (RIC) and Tychero Police and Border Guard Station) and on Lesvos (Moria Pre-removal Centre). The CPT recommends that Greece take “vigorous steps” to stamp out ill-treatment of foreign nationals deprived of their liberty by the police (see also the executive summary of the report).
