Coerced into Subsistence: Deprivation of Liberty in the EU Reception and Identification Centres in Greece

In 2021, new reception centres for asylum seekers were established in Greece. These centres are remotely located, highly surveillanced and asylum seekers living there are subjected to stringent conditions, including a curfew, that obliges them to be in the centre between 8 pm. and 8 am. Such curfews are a traditional method of social control and fit a broader trend of excluding certain categories of people from public space. This article analyses the gap between the lived experiences of asylum seekers staying in these centres and the protection provided by human rights law. It shows how these centres are generally experienced as prisons by its inhabitants, whereas they are not qualified as such in human rights law. The article uses the notion of ‘subsistence exchange contracts’ to bridge this gap. The article argues that if this notion would be used for the legal qualification of deprivation of liberty, state power would be more effectively constrained, which is crucial for the rule of law.