Kos pre-removal detention centre
Pyli, 85300 Kos (inside the compound of the Kos closed controlled access centre) · Kos, South Aegean
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 Kos pre-removal detention centre is a Hellenic Police facility that holds people pending removal, inside the compound of the Kos closed controlled access centre at Pyli. It is custody, not accommodation. It is run by the Hellenic Police (Ministry of Citizen Protection) and is in use. The National Situational Picture (NSP) of 1 September 2026 lists 47 people detained against 474 places. AIDA gives a nominal capacity of 567 places, notes that the police capacity table for 2025 lists Kos at 100 places, and reports 33 people detained on Kos on 31 December 2025 and 168 during 2025 (Hellenic Police data of 6 March 2026). The figures differ, so each is dated and cited.
Key facts
- Type
- Pre-removal detention centre
- Run by
- Hellenic Police (Ministry of Citizen Protection)
- Address
- Pyli, 85300 Kos (inside the compound of the Kos closed controlled access centre), Kos, South Aegean
- Capacity
- 474 places (as at 1 September 2026)Source: NSP of 1 September 2026, row for the police pre-removal centre (detention places)
- People counted there
- 47 (as at 1 September 2026)Source: NSP of 1 September 2026 (people detained)
- Opened
- Not published.
Background
AIDA describes it as the only pre-removal detention centre on the islands, and reports that people arriving on Kos, and some reaching Kos from Rhodes, may be detained there. AIDA also reports that part of the centre is used as an accommodation area for the Kos closed controlled access centre. The Council of Europe's anti-torture committee (CPT), after its visit in November and December 2023, described conditions of detention at Kos in its report of 12 July 2024 (quoted in AIDA).
There is no separate map outline for this facility. The position is placed by hand inside the compound it shares with the Kos closed controlled access centre, offset from that centre's pin, and 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
- National Situational Picture (NSP), Eastern Aegean islands, 1 September 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.