Women's Immigration Detention in Greece: Gender, Control, and Capacity

Abstract

In this article we draw on fieldwork conducted in Athen’s Central Holding Centre for immigrants, Petrou Ralli, in 2012. Using testimonies from detainees and the staff who work with them we unveil the human impact of policies being implemented in response to transnational pressures from Brussels and to more local problems. What are women’s needs in detention? How do those who work in the detention centre view the women they lock up? What obstacles do detainees face, as women? How do they interpret their experiences? We also contribute to an emerging feminist body of literature in criminology concerned with the relationship between gender and border control.

Keywords: Greece, immigration detention, gender, ethnography