By Danai Angeli
Cases like the above are recently not uncommon in Greece. Around 300 irregular migrants are currently in detention that has lasted almost 18 months or even longer.
Since February 2014 the Greek authorities have followed a new strategy to manage the admittedly large number of irregular migrants that are currently present in the country: irregular migrants are placed in detention for an indefinite amount of time, until they agree to be returned to their home countries. The objective is rather straightforward. Deprived of their liberty and of any hope for an early release, the migrants will most likely opt to return to their home countries. Once there, they will discourage potential newcomers from choosing Greece. The advantage is thereby two-fold: the return rate is expect to increase and the number of irregular arrivals is expected to gradually drop.
The problem however is that Greece's policy is both illegal and financially not workable.
Under the Greek law, which is in line with EU standards, detaining an irregular migrant is a last resort measure, which can be only exceptionally employed. In no case may detention exceed 18 months. Unsurprisingly, Greece's recent practice to systematise detention and circumvent this time frame has found little support at a judicial level. In at least 150 cases where an irregular migrant had been detained for more than 18 months the Greek courts ordered his immediate release, on grounds that such a measure was not lawful.
Prolonged detention is also from an economic perspective not advisable; because its heavy cost by far outweighs its benefits. Research conducted in the framework of the 'MIDAS' project, which looked into the cost of Greece's irregular migration policy between 2008-2013, found that the average daily cost of detaining a migrant is estimated at 16 euros per day. The authorities intend to run 10,000 places of detention by the end of 2014, which translates into 57.6 million euros per year. This makes however Greece's policy financially not tenable, because it exceeds by far the currently available budget. As expected, Greece has repeatedly appealed to the EU for additional funding. Because of the high cost of detention, for every detainee who does not eventually return the financial loss can translate by analogy into millions. The release of 150 migrants after 18 months of detention meant for instance a loss of 1.3 million euros within 1.5 year.
There is no doubt that Greece is under a tight budget when it comes to managing its irregular migrant population. Avoiding waste and effectively distributing the available resources is therefore of outmost importance. Next to detention there are viable alternatives which are legally less controversial and more advantageous in economic terms. Early legal advice to dispel false hopes, caseworker management and investment in reintegration schemes are tools equally capable of shrinking Greece's irregular migrant population and with lesser cost. They are some of the many policy recommendations that the final report of the MIDAS project has collected in an effort to aid Greece develop a more cost-effective migration management.