Doctors Without Borders denounced the “terrible conditions” of more than 9,600 migrants detained in the Greek islands

The reception centers for migrants and refugees opened in the Greek Aegean Islands are currently hosting more than 9,600 people who, according to a report by Médecins sans frontières (MSF), they remain trapped in “terrible conditions”, with little information and subjected to harsh asylum procedures.

The NGO considers that this model, which combines containment and deterrence and has the approval of the European Union, endangers the health, well-being and safety of migrants who are in one of the five centers in Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros.

Over the past two years, MSF mental health clinics on three of these islands have treated some 1,370 patients with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. About 180 of them self-harm or attempted suicide, and two in three were children, the youngest being only six years old.

Patients attribute their mental health problems mainly to daily stress and constant fear, but also poor living conditions, complicated administrative and asylum procedures, exposure to violence and insecurity, family separation, unmet medical needs and fear of deportation.

NGOs have for years denounced the authorities’ lack of attention to the most basic needs of these people, which has led these organizations to assume some of the most basic services. Between October 2019 and May 2021, MSF brought more than 43 million liters of water to the inhabitants of the overcrowded Vathy camp in Samos, where the water is not drinkable.

The organization has called on the EU to change its immigration policy, given that the current “It created an unprecedented crisis and enormous human suffering”, in the words of Councilor Reem Mussa, one of the authors of the report “Creating the crisis at the border of Europe”. “These are not unintended consequences,” he added in a statement.

Moussa pointed out that “It’s not too late for compassion and common sense”, in a message with which He called for “urgent assistance, protection and relocation” of those arriving on European territory, mostly from dangerous areas or after going through all kinds of hardship.

MSF coordinator in Greece, Iorgos Karagiannis, believes that the EU and the Greek government are simply spending money to “normalize and intensify policies which have already done a lot of damage”. And even harden them, since the Moria camp in Lesbos served as a model for a new “prison” center in Samos which could open this month.

The new facility is located “in a remote and exposed area of ​​the island and will keep people in containers, surrounded by barbed wire, with controlled entry and exit.” According to Karagiannis, “It cannot be sold as an improvement in people’s living conditions”, quite the contrary.

(With EP information)

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