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🇬🇷 Greece · Closed controlled access centre (island)In useposition placed by hand or derived from the address

Kos closed controlled access centre (Pyli)

Pyli, 85300 Kos (former Makrygianni military camp) · Kos, South Aegean

The Kos closed controlled access centre is a state centre for people in the asylum procedure near the village of Pyli, about 15 km from Kos town, on the former Makrygianni army camp. 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 3,455 places and 1,081 people counted at this centre. The NSP lists the Kos pre-removal detention centre on its own police row, separate from this centre's row and with its own page here, so we read the 3,455 as not including it.

Key facts

Type
Closed controlled access centre (island)
Run by
Reception and Identification Service (RIS), Ministry of Migration and Asylum
Address
Pyli, 85300 Kos (former Makrygianni military camp), Kos, South Aegean
Capacity
3,455 places (as at 1 September 2026)Source: National Situational Picture (NSP) of 1 September 2026
People counted there
1,081 (as at 1 September 2026)Source: National Situational Picture (NSP) of 1 September 2026
Status
In use (as at 1 September 2026)
Opened
Reception and identification centre from June 2016; the new closed centre was inaugurated on 27 November 2021 (AIDA).

Background

The ministry says the centre was funded 100% by the EU at EUR 33.64 million plus VAT (EUR 39.36 million in total). Its page describes a nominal 2,923 places, including 567 in a pre-removal section. The NSP's 3,455 for the centre is higher than that and the NSP does not say what it consists of; because the NSP lists the police pre-removal centre (474 places) on a separate row, we read the 3,455 as not including it. AIDA reports that during mass arrivals newly arrived people are placed in restaurants and classrooms, and that part of the pre-removal centre is also used as an accommodation area. After a visit from 20 November to 1 December 2023, the Council of Europe's anti-torture committee (CPT) said conditions for large numbers of people at the centre "could only be described as inhuman and degrading" (quoted in AIDA; report published on 12 July 2024).

Reported incidents

Listed only where a mainstream, court, police or official source reports the incident. Each entry names its source and the stage the case had reached, and no one is named.

  • 4 December 2023Arrested

    Proto Thema reported on 6 December 2023 that on the afternoon of Monday 4 December groups of residents damaged doors and beds, emptied fire extinguishers, threw objects at staff and tried to breach the metal fence. It reported that four men, three Palestinians aged 24, 22 and 22 and an 18-year-old Egyptian, were arrested and taken before the Kos prosecutor, on charges it listed as damage to public property, disturbing the peace and disobedience.

Sources

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.

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