The special reference made to our country and the characteristics of the prison population by US President Donald Trump during his speech in New York, in the context of the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly, caused a sensation and debate.

As the US president said, “According to the Council of Europe, in 2024 almost 50% of the prisoners in German prisons were foreign nationals or immigrants. In Austria, the figure was 53%. In Greece, 54%. In Switzerland, 72%. When your prisons are filled with so-called asylum seekers who repay kindness with crime, it’s time to end your failed experiment in open borders. You must end it now.”

But what is the truth about the “population” of detainees? Indeed, as data from the Ministry of Citizen Protection shows, 55% of the prisoners in Greek prisons (more than half) are foreigners. According to sources at Katehaki, these are mainly Albanians, Algerians, Pakistanis, Turks, Georgians and Afghans.

Indicative is the article published by protothema.gr in mid-September regarding the arrests of nationals and foreigners in our country in 2024 and their comparison with those of 2022.

Specifically, in 2022, 57,333 nationals and 54,212 foreigners were arrested for various offences. In 2024, the number of nationals arrested jumped to 73,479. 16,146 more than in 2022 (an increase of 29.78%). The number of foreigners arrested in 2024 was 57,150, 2,938 more than in 2022.
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In numerical terms, there were (approximately) 5,520 foreigners detained in Greek prisons on 31/01/2024. The total capacity of the 34 Greek prisons is 10,775 and their occupancy level on the same date was 94.7%. At its peak in 2014, the occupancy rate had reached 116% to drop to 89% in 2016 and rise to 93% in 2018 and 102% in 2020.

As noted in the article, our country is essentially first in Europe in the percentage of foreign prisoners, as those statistically ahead (Cyprus, Luxembourg, Monaco, etc.) have far fewer prisoners. The Principality of Monaco does have a 93.5% rate of foreign prisoners, but there are only 31 prisoners in its prisons (i.e., 27-28 of the prisoners are foreigners).