Research draws attention to links between repressive policing, violence against racialised people in Greece
Hallway in Corinth pre-removal detention centre, December 2025. Photo: Detention Landscapes
Research published by the University of Oxford on Tuesday found that 13 Pakistani nationals had died in Greek detention since 2000.
The archive, published on Detention Landscapes in English, Greek and Arabic, adds to long-standing efforts elsewhere to document border and immigration control-related deaths where reliable government data is not available.
The report said that at least 112 foreign nationals in total had died in police and immigration detention facilities in Greece since 2000, with authorities failing to maintain a reliable public record of the deaths.
Read: Greece detains around 200 migrants
According to the study, Pakistani and Albanian nationals accounted for the largest identified groups by nationality, with 13 deaths each. The nationality of 32 individuals was not specified.
The findings, based on police data obtained through Freedom of Information requests, reports by international monitoring bodies, media archives and interviews with formerly detained people, document deaths in police stations and immigration detention facilities across the country.
Since Greece opened its first pre-removal detention centre in 2012, at least 27 deaths have been reported in these facilities, according to the research.
Researchers said Greek authorities do not routinely publish statistics on the number of foreign nationals who die in custody, their identities, the locations of their deaths or the circumstances surrounding them.
The study found that most of the documented deaths involved men, with 82 male victims, while four involved women. The gender of 26 individuals was not recorded.
Of the 70 people whose ages were known, the median age was 33.5, while 45 were under 40.
Suicide was the most frequently recorded cause of death in official police or government sources, accounting for 44 cases, followed by pathological causes in 20 cases. Authorities did not report a cause of death in 36 cases.
Medical neglect, physical abuse
Non-governmental sources also raised concerns about medical neglect and physical abuse in some cases, the report said.
Researchers highlighted significant gaps in information about people who died in state custody, saying basic details about their identities and the circumstances of their deaths remained undocumented even though they had been held by state authorities.
Read More: Immigrants launch hunger strike after Pakistani dies in Greek detention camp
Media reports on deaths in detention were generally limited to brief accounts reproducing information provided by police, with little information about the individuals or the circumstances surrounding their deaths. Accounts from families, friends and fellow detainees were also frequently missing.
The research also draws attention to links between restrictive immigration policies, violence against racialised people and repressive policing in Greek society.
