A new report released today by Equal Rights Beyond Borders highlights the persistence and normalization of serious rights violations in the Kos Pre-Removal Detention Centre (Kos PRDC). This report is the fourth in a series of annual publications documenting detention practices, living conditions and legal developments affecting migrants and asylum seekers detained on Kos.
Since opening its office on the island in 2021, Equal Rights has continuously monitored immigration detention through legal aid provision, field observations, interviews with detained individuals and litigation before domestic Courts. The findings of this year’s report demonstrate that many of the violations documented over the past years remain unchanged, while new legislative developments risk further expanding the use of detention and weakening procedural safeguards.
The report documents serious concerns regarding detention conditions, access to healthcare, treatment by police authorities, procedural safeguards, access to justice and the increasing criminalization of people on the move following the implementation of Law 5226/2025.
Among the report’s key findings:
• Conditions in the Kos PRDC remain deeply inadequate. Detainees reported sewage leaks, cockroach infestations, broken sanitation facilities, lack of privacy, insufficient food and degrading living conditions.
• Access to healthcare and psychological support remains severely restricted. Participants reported significant barriers to seeing doctors or specialists, long waiting times, lack of medication and serious deterioration of their physical and mental health during detention.
• Women were detained for prolonged periods in mixed accommodation sections alongside dozens of men, sharing bathrooms and common spaces without adequate privacy or safety safeguards. Female detainees reported harassment, fear and a constant sense of insecurity.
• Detainees continue to receive little or no information regarding the reasons for their detention, their legal rights or available remedies. Many reported signing documents they did not understand and without the assistance of interpretation.
• Although free legal aid to challenge detention is formally available in the law, access to it remains largely inaccessible in practice. Detainees are often not informed of this possibility, while linguistic, geographical and procedural barriers significantly hinder their ability to challenge their detention before the competent Court.
• The report highlights the impact of Law 5226/2025, which marks a significant shift towards the criminalization of migration. The new framework expands detention periods, introduces criminal penalties related to irregular stay and risks further blurring the distinction between administrative detention and criminal punishment. Equal Rights documented cases illustrating how the law may undermine access to asylum procedures and fundamental safeguards.
Five years after Equal Rights first documented conditions inside the Kos PRDC, the findings of this report demonstrate that many of the violations identified in 2021 persist and, in several respects, have become increasingly normalized. The continued use of detention in conditions that undermine human dignity, combined with persistent barriers to healthcare, legal assistance and effective judicial protection, raises serious concerns regarding compliance with fundamental rights standards. At a time when the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum entered into force and the new Common European Asylum System is being implemented across the EU, the findings from Kos raise serious concerns about the expansion of detention practices in the absence of effective safeguards, oversight and access to justice.
“I feel my soul is done since I came here, I feel I’m not going to leave this place, I lost hope. I sacrificed myself to cross the sea and that’s how I ended up now” - asylum seeker detained in the Kos PRDC during 2025.
Read the full report here.
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Contact: info@equal-rights.org