http://www.hrw.org/reports/2013/06/12/unwelcome-guests

This report is based on interviews with forty-four people who have been subjected to at least one stop since the launch of Operation Xenios Zeus. Thirty-five of them had a legal right to be in Greece at the time of the stops because they are asylum seekers, legal foreign residents, or Greeks of foreign origin.

The accounts we heard confirmed our early concerns about Operation Xenios Zeus. Out on the streets police regularly, even repeatedly, stop and search individuals who appear to be foreigners and order them to provide proof of a legal right to be in Greece.  Even when these individuals have documents, all too often police stop them and then transfer them to a police station where they may detain them for hours pending verification of their legal status.
The lengthy and intrusive procedure amounts to arbitrary and discriminatory deprivation of liberty.

Many legal residents and registered asylum seekers interviewed for this report had experienced being stopped by police officers in the street, confined in police buses, and detained in police stations and the Aliens Police Division for up to five hours. One person interviewed was held for approximately 10 hours, on one occasion. The Greek authorities argue that the procedure is necessary to identify forged documents and to verify photocopies of documents, and that they do not have sufficient capacity or adequate equipment to verify the validity of identity documents on the street. However, authorities have failed to take steps to ensure that police are able to do this verification on the street, including by putting in place the technical means allowing police to do so remotely.“