SAMOS, Greece — Greece on Saturday inaugurated the
first of five new "closed" migrant camps, opposed by rights groups
who say the strict access measures are too restrictive.
اضافة اعلان
Barbed wire fencing surrounds the new camp on the island of
Samos, which is also installed with surveillance cameras, x-ray scanners, and
magnetic doors.
The EU has committed 276 million euros for the new camps on
Greece's five Aegean islands — Leros, Lesbos, Kos, Chios, as well Samos — that
receive most of the migrant arrivals by sea from neighbouring Turkey.
The Samos camp, which will serve as a pilot for the other
so-called closed and controlled access facilities, has a detention center and
asylum seekers will only be able to go in by scanning their fingerprints and
electronic badges at the entrance.
Gates will remain closed at night and those who don't return
before 8.00 pm will face disciplinary sanctions.
The camp boasts sports and games areas, as well as shared
kitchens.
Dormitories have five beds each and a cupboard, with shared
toilets and showers, an AFP team saw.
"The new closed-controlled access center will give back
the lost dignity to people seeking international protection, but also the
necessary conditions of safeguarding and restraint for illegal migrants who are
to be returned," Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said at the
opening.
Living conditions
The Leros camp is expected to be finished next month, while
on Lesbos — home to Moria, Europe's largest camp, which was destroyed by fire
last year — work has yet to begin.
With better quality accommodation, running water, toilets,
separate areas for families and more security, the Greek government says that
the camps will meet European standards.
They replace previous facilities that became infamous for
their living conditions.
On Samos, the facility near the port of Vathy had been
designed for about 680 people but at one point was home to nearly 10 times that
number.
Asylum seekers still live there — rats, improvised wooden
barracks without heating and a lack of toilets and showers continue to be part
of their daily lives.
But from Monday, residents will be transferred to the new
facility some 5km from Samos's main town of the same name.
Τhe old camp will be closed by month's end, according to the
migration ministry.
And the Greek army will dismantle the buildings, remove the
containers and decontaminate the area, which will then be passed on to the
municipality.
"This is a promise to the local community, but also a
commitment of our ministry," Mitarachi has said, responding to anger among
the local community who, for years, watched as the camp ballooned on the
outskirts of their village.
'Camps should be open'
NGOs and aid groups however have raised concerns about the
new camps' structure in isolated places and residents' confinement.
Last week, dozens of NGOs, including Amnesty International,
accused Greece of pursuing "harmful policies focused on deterring and
containing asylum
seekers and refugees".
Some 45 NGOs and civil society groups urged the EU and Greek
government to abandon plans to restrict the movement of people in the camps.
In a report, they said the new structures "will impede
effective identification and protection of vulnerable people, limit access to
services and assistance for asylum seekers, and exacerbate the harmful effects
of displacement and containment on individuals' mental health".
The UN refugee agency's representative in Greece also
expressed reservations.
"The word 'closed' comes up often and this is
concerning," Mireille Girard said, adding "asylum seekers need
protection, they are not criminals or a risk for the community, they are people
who need help.
"For us, camps should be open. The government has
assured us that they will be."
Greece was the main point where more than one million asylum
seekers — mainly Syrians, Iraqis, and Afghans — entered Europe in 2015.
The crisis in Afghanistan has prompted fears of a new
migration wave.
Mitarachi said this week that the flow of new arrivals had
been reduced by 90 percent compared to 2019.
However, humanitarian organizations say the drop is due to
systematic and illegal pushbacks of migrants to Turkey by Greek authorities
which Greece's conservative government has repeatedly denied.
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