Barbed wire, X-ray scanners and magnetic doors: on the Greek island of Samos, the new “closed” camp for migrants, the first of a “new generation” inaugurated on Saturday, looks at first sight like an isolated prison a quarter of a century away. hour’s drive from the main town.
On a plot of more than 12,000 m² bordered by a double line of barbed wire, more than 300 asylum seekers will be transferred there from Monday from the soon-to-be dismantled slum of Vathy, where they had hitherto piled up at the gates. from the city.
“From Samos, we are sending a message to all the islands: the images (of unsanitary camps) of Moria (in Lesvos) or Vathy are now a thing of the past,” Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said at the ceremony inauguration of the still empty camp.
Divided into several “neighborhoods”, asylum seekers will have access to areas for catering, sports, games, but also shared kitchens. The containers have five beds and a wardrobe each, leading to Turkish toilets and shared showers, an AFP team found.
The new installation, criticized in advance by many NGOs, cost 43 million euros, according to the Ministry of Migration.
Detention for rejected asylum seekers
Within it, a detention center has been planned for migrants who have been refused asylum and doomed to be returned to Turkey.
The same is true on Leros Island, where such a camp should be completed next month, and on Kos Island immediately after.
In Lesvos, where the Moria camp was reduced to ashes last year, work has not yet started and is not expected to be completed until the fall of 2022, according to a government source.
The European Commission has pledged € 276 million to finance five new camps on the Aegean islands, which receive most of the migrants arriving from neighboring Turkish coasts.
“This is the first reception center of a new generation on the Aegean Islands,” Beate Gminder, deputy director general for migration and interior at the European Commission, told Samos.
In Samos, the slum of Vathy housed nearly 7,000 asylum seekers between 2015 and 2016, for an initial capacity of 680 people.
Of the 550 migrants remaining on the island, some 300 living in unsanitary conditions have agreed to be transferred to the new camp where they are due to report on Monday.
Fears about the confinement of migrants
But they will only be able to go out during the day, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., transported by bus to town and forced to present their fingerprints and an electronic badge at the magnetic gate at the entrance.
Disciplinary sanctions are planned for those who do not return before 8:00 p.m.
These new centers “will prevent the effective identification of vulnerable people”, “limit asylum seekers’ access to services” and “amplify the harmful effect of confinement on the mental health of people”, criticized a around fifty NGOs, including Amnesty International.
“The word” closed “often comes up,” admitted Mireille Girard, the representative in Greece of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “This worries the refugees who heard it. We have discussed it with the authorities and we have been told this morning that these will be open camps, which is very important,” she told AFP. after the inauguration.
For her, “Vathy was the worst camp in the whole country, so it’s good to close this chapter. Having said that, it is very important that people in the new structure can move freely in and out. camp to re-establish a sense of normalcy after their arrival “.
Athens continues to congratulate itself on the significant decongestion of the camps and the reduction in arrivals by almost 90% since 2019.
But NGOs explain this decline by the refoulement of migrants to Turkey, which the Greek conservative government denies.
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