Fylakio pre-removal detention centre
Fylakio, Orestiada, 68200, Evros regional unit · Orestiada, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace
Immigration detention, not accommodation
This is a place of custody pending removal. It is not accommodation, its places are not counted as accommodation capacity anywhere on this site, and it is shown apart from the reception sites.
Greek immigration detention is run by the Hellenic Police. Its centres hold people pending removal, and AIDA reports that some of them are asylum applicants. They are shown apart and never counted as reception capacity.
The Fylakio pre-removal detention centre is a Hellenic Police facility that holds people pending removal, next to the Fylakio reception and identification centre near Orestiada, in Evros. It is custody, not accommodation. It is run by the Hellenic Police (Ministry of Citizen Protection) and is in use. AIDA gives a capacity of 232 places for 2025 from the Hellenic Police capacity table and, citing Hellenic Police data of 6 March 2026, 312 people detained on 31 December 2025 (none of them asylum seekers) and 6,209 people detained during 2025. The number held on that date was above the capacity given; the published sources do not explain why.
Key facts
- Type
- Pre-removal detention centre
- Run by
- Hellenic Police (Ministry of Citizen Protection)
- Address
- Fylakio, Orestiada, 68200, Evros regional unit, Orestiada, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace
- Capacity
- 232 places (as at 2025)Source: AIDA 2025 Update (July 2026), p.244: Hellenic Police capacity table for 2025
- People counted there
- 312 (as at 31 December 2025)Source: Hellenic Police data of 6 March 2026, in AIDA 2025 Update, p.237, and Ministry of Citizen Protection reply 7017/4/28032-γ' of 16 March 2026, as published by RSA: 312 people held on 31 December 2025
- Opened
- Operating as a pre-removal detention centre since 2013, according to the CPT (report on its 2023 visit, published 12 July 2024).
Background
According to AIDA, new arrivals in Evros are first held at a border-guard station or at this centre (so-called pre-RIC detention), before transfer to the reception and identification centre next door; by the end of 2024 this lasted a few days, as far as the Greek Council for Refugees was aware. The 232 places are the capacity of the police centre's own building. In June 2024 the Ministry of Citizen Protection told the Council of Europe's anti-torture committee (CPT) that a refurbishment completed in May 2021 had reduced it from 374 to 232 beds. During its visit of 20 November to 1 December 2023, the CPT recorded an operational capacity of 232 places, with two people held. Separately, the version of the reception centre's page dated 20 March 2024 listed 284 pre-removal places, plus 8 for disabled people, in the reception centre's new extension. On 29 May 2024 the Ministry of Migration and Asylum told the CPT that four wards of the pre-removal centre in that extension operate under the Hellenic Police. AIDA's figure of 284 pre-removal places out of 768 comes from that ministry page. Those wards are not listed in the police capacity table, and their current capacity and use are not published. The number held was 11 at the end of 2023 and 15 at the end of 2024 (AIDA), and 128 on 30 June 2025 (RSA, citing the Ministry of Citizen Protection).
The position is the centre of an unnamed OpenStreetMap compound at Fylakio that is most likely this facility, with the reception centre adjoining it; it is approximate.
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
- AIDA / ECRE, Country Report Greece, 2025 Update (July 2026) · third-party source, not official
- Refugee Support Aegean (RSA), March 2026: Deportation and immigration detention statistics in Greece in 2025, citing the Ministry of Citizen Protection reply of 16 March 2026 · third-party source, not official
- CPT, report on the visit to Greece of 20 November to 1 December 2023, CPT/Inf (2024) 21 (12 July 2024) · official source
- Response of the Greek Government to the CPT, CPT/Inf (2024) 22 (12 July 2024) · official source
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.