Greece denies report of secret ‘detention center’ for migrants near Turkish border

The Greek government has dismissed a report in the New York Times newspaper that it was holding illegal migrants who cross the border from Turkey at a secret ‘black site’ where they are denied access to lawyers and cannot file asylum claims.

Tens of thousands of migrants have been trying to get into Greece, an EU member state, since Turkey said on February 28 it would no longer keep them on its territory as part of a 2016 deal with Brussels in return for EU aid for the refugees.

“There is no secret detention center in Greece,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas told reporters on Wednesday, adding that if an international newspaper knew about the site, it wasn’t secret.

Petsas reiterated Greece’s previous denials that its forces have killed any migrants, Reuters reports. “This is organized Turkish propaganda and the spreading of fake news,” he said.