The Closed Controlled Structure at the “Kleidi” location in the municipality of Sintiki , in Serres, turned into a field of tension late on Saturday night (22/8), where a riot of immigrants broke out that kept the authorities on alert for several hours.
Strong police forces and riot police units rushed to the scene, which undertook to restore order, while the Fire Department was also mobilized. The situation, according to information, had been chaotic since earlier, both inside and around the area.
Residents of the facility threw stones and other objects at police forces, while initial reports indicate damage to the fence and significant material damage to the facilities. The wider area was cordoned off.
Local media reports indicate that people escaped from the structure , something the authorities were examining carefully without confirming, since in similar incidents in the past, a process of recounting the residents was always followed.
The information about at least one injured person who was transported by ambulance to Serres General Hospital also remains unconfirmed. An official statement from the Greek Police had not been issued by the time of the report’s closing, while the cause of the incident had not been made known.
The incident is not an isolated one. The structure at “Kleidi” — a facility in an isolated spot near the border with Bulgaria , at the foot of Belles — has evolved, since it began operating about a year ago, into one of the most episodic points on the country’s migration map .
It is an administrative detention facility, not an open-air facility, where the residents, hundreds of young men, are not allowed to leave. Its population last year ranged from around 750 to 780 people , with the vast majority coming from Egypt and the rest mainly from Bangladesh and Afghanistan .
The most serious incident occurred on 12 November 2025. The tension began in the early afternoon as a protest over asylum claims and living conditions, with a group of migrants setting fire to clothes in the courtyard and attempting to cut the internal wire of the first of the two security zones. A stone-throwing war ensued, two police officers were slightly injured — one by throwing a stone and the other by being bitten — and the situation normalized after about an hour. 29 people were arrested, for incitement to commit crimes, attempted escape and disobedience. Two days later, the Single-Member Misdemeanor Court of Serres imposed three-year prison sentences and a fine of 450 euros on 26 of them, without a suspended sentence, while the sentence of three was increased and one, who was accused of assaulting a police officer, reached three years and seven months. The case of the “30 of Sintiki” was heard in a second instance on 26 June 2026 , with solidarity demonstrations outside the courthouse.
A new uprising occurred on Sunday, May 3, 2026 , when approximately fifty prisoners gathered in the courtyard shouting slogans for their release. After two hours of high tension, the situation calmed down without any forceful intervention, however, four Egyptian nationals, aged 20 to 24, were arrested and sentenced by summary judgment to two years in prison each for prisoner resistance.
Behind the recurring tension lie two parallel narratives. From the perspective of residents and solidarity organizations, there are complaints of inadequate medical care, poor hygiene conditions, inadequate nutrition, overcrowding in containers and incidents of violence. From the government’s perspective, the Minister of Immigration and Asylum , Thanos Plevris, had linked the November incidents to the reactions to the new law that provides for those who do not have a refugee profile “expedited asylum examination, rejection, deportation” and detention status until then, emphasizing that the commission of criminal offenses within the structures burdens the position of the detainees themselves.
At the same time, pressure is also being exerted by the police. The trade union bodies of the prefecture have officially informed the physical and political leadership, asking for radical solutions and pointing out that the Serres police bear a disproportionately large burden of immigration, while they recently announced mobilizations on the occasion of the completion of one year of operation of the structure. Riot police forces remain permanently stationed at the gate after last year’s incidents.
The authorities are expected to provide information on the extent of the damage, the exact number of injured and whether there were any escapes, after the completion of the recount of the residents. The case, as in previous incidents, is expected to be brought to justice through the autophorus procedure, once those involved are identified.
