Chios closed controlled access centre (VIAL)
VIAL site, Chalkeios, 82100 Chios · Chios, North Aegean
The Chios closed controlled access centre, known as VIAL, is a state centre for people in the asylum procedure inland near the village of Chalkeios. It is run by the Reception and Identification Service (RIS) of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum and is in use. The National Situational Picture (NSP) of 1 September 2026 lists 1,014 places and 461 people counted at this centre.
Key facts
- Type
- Closed controlled access centre (island)
- Run by
- Reception and Identification Service (RIS), Ministry of Migration and Asylum
- Address
- VIAL site, Chalkeios, 82100 Chios, Chios, North Aegean
- Capacity
- 1,014 places (as at 1 September 2026)Source: National Situational Picture (NSP) of 1 September 2026
- People counted there
- 461 (as at 1 September 2026)Source: National Situational Picture (NSP) of 1 September 2026
- Status
- In use (as at 1 September 2026)
- Opened
- February 2016 (start of operation, AIDA). Later renamed a closed controlled access centre.
Background
VIAL stands in the middle of the island on about 34.6 stremmata (3.5 hectares), and the ministry's page gives the same total of 1,014 places. AIDA gives February 2016 as the start of operation. AIDA's 2025 report describes conditions as substandard, with cockroaches and rodents, poor food and no permanent doctor since March 2021. A replacement centre at Akra Pachi-Tholos, 11 km from Chios town, has not been built: AIDA reports that on 21 October 2024 the Chios Court of First Instance ruled that the land belongs to the Municipality of Chios.
Reported incidents
No reported incident is listed for this site. An incident is listed only if a mainstream, court, police or official source reports it, so an empty list does not mean that none occurred.
Sources
- National Situational Picture (NSP), Eastern Aegean islands, 1 September 2026 · official source
- Ministry of Migration and Asylum: page of the Chios centre (read on 4 October 2026) · official source
- AIDA / ECRE, Country Report Greece, 2025 Update (July 2026) · third-party source, not official
The Ministry of Migration and Asylum publishes a page for each reception structure with its name and address, but no coordinates, and its list is not kept up to date. For the five island centres the figures are those of the National Situational Picture (NSP) of 1 September 2026. For the mainland they are those of the ministry's reply to a parliamentary question of 6 February 2026 (figures at 31 December 2025), as published by Refugee Support Aegean, with the table of the AIDA country report (July 2026) for June 2025 beside them. Capacity is the figure each source gives, nominal unless the page says otherwise, and is not a headcount; where sources differ, each figure is shown with its date. For Samos and Leros the pre-removal detention places that the ministry's pages describe are subtracted from the NSP figure, and our Samos and Leros pages say so. Positions are placed by hand from map features and addresses and are approximate. No cost is published for any single site. Incidents are listed only where a mainstream, court, police or official source reports them, with the stage reached; an empty list does not mean that none occurred.