Diavata reception and identification centre
Anagnostopoulou army camp, old Allied road to Oraiokastro, Diavata, Thessaloniki 57008 · Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia
The Diavata reception and identification centre is a state centre for people in the asylum procedure on the former Anagnostopoulou army camp at Diavata, on the western edge of Thessaloniki. It is run by the Reception and Identification Service (RIS) of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum and is in use. The ministry's reply to a parliamentary question of 6 February 2026, as published by Refugee Support Aegean, gives a nominal capacity of 1,017 places, an actual capacity of 951 places and 422 residents at 31 December 2025. The ministry's own page gives 936 places on 49 stremmata, and AIDA's table for June 2025 gives 802 places and 777 people; the sources differ and each is dated.
Key facts
- Type
- Reception and identification centre
- Run by
- Reception and Identification Service (RIS), Ministry of Migration and Asylum
- Address
- Anagnostopoulou army camp, old Allied road to Oraiokastro, Diavata, Thessaloniki 57008, Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia
- Capacity
- 1,017 places (as at 31 December 2025)Source: Ministry reply of 6 February 2026, via RSA: nominal capacity at 31 December 2025
- People counted there
- 422 (as at 31 December 2025)Source: Ministry reply of 6 February 2026, via RSA: residents at 31 December 2025
- Status
- In use (as at 31 December 2025)
- Opened
- Formally established by joint ministerial decision 3/14762 (Gazette B 3720, 16 November 2016), according to AIDA.
Background
AIDA lists Diavata with Elaionas and Schisto as the only three mainland facilities officially established before 2020. It is one of the two mainland reception and identification centres where asylum claims are registered (with Malakasa), and it also houses people in a camp section. The ministry describes perimeter fencing, turnstiles, X-ray scanners, biometric access control and CCTV linked to control centres. The Greek Ombudsperson noted in 2024 barriers topped with barbed wire and cameras at the gates, on the perimeter and in public areas.
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
- Ministry of Migration and Asylum: page of the Diavata centre (read on 4 October 2026) · official source
- Refugee Support Aegean (RSA), March 2026: figures from the Ministry reply (ref. 24237) of 6 February 2026 to parliamentary question 2309/177 · third-party source, not official
- 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.