Greece must urgently repeal the legal rules that are causing people seeking asylum in the EU-funded “Closed Controlled Access Center” on the island of Samos to be systematically and unlawfully deprived of their liberty, said Amnesty International in a report issued today. The organization also called on the EU to hold Greece accountable for human rights violations in the center and ensure that model is not a blueprint for the recently adopted Migration and Asylum Pact.
The report, Samos: “We Feel in Prison on the Island” Unlawful Detention and Sub-standard Conditions in an EU-Funded Refugee Center, reveals indiscriminate use of “restrictions of freedom” orders subjecting residents to unlawful and arbitrary detention.
“Greece has long been a testing ground for EU migration policies predicated on the racialized exclusion of people on the move at the borders of the region. The results on Samos show that this model is punitive, expensive and rife for abuse. Under the pretext of registering and identifying people, the Greek authorities are de facto detaining all residents upon arrival, including people in vulnerable situations, in violation of their rights. This is all happening in an EU-funded site that is supposed to be compliant with European standards,” said Deprose Muchena, Senior Director, Regional Human Rights Impact at Amnesty International.
“A dystopian nightmare” funded by the EU
After fires devastated the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesvos in 2020, the European Commission provided €276 million of EU funds for new “multi-purpose” centers, promising “better conditions.” The sites were designed to comprise reception and pre-return detention facilities. The center on Samos was the first to be opened, in 2021.
As a result of increased arrivals, between June 2023 and January 2024, the center experienced overcrowding, reaching a peak of 4,850 residents in October 2023. This led to people being accommodated in non-residential areas such as kitchens and classrooms, and containers, in inadequate conditions. While the site’s original capacity was for 2,040 people, the authorities changed it to 3,650 in September 2023, without any apparent intervention to increase accommodation capacity.
Increased arrivals exacerbated longstanding issues in the provision of basic services, including water shortages and the lack of a permanent medical doctor. The continuity of medical services in the camp is also in question, as the contracts of health workers currently serving the site expired on 30 June, but the implementation of the new EU funded project for the provision of healthcare, “Hippocrates”, under the International Organization for Migration’s management, remains pending. The prolonged and continuing uncertainty around the provision of adequate healthcare services in the camp raises serious concerns about Greece’s ability to ensure asylum seekers’ equal access to health services.
“The EU promised these centers would be up to ‘European standards’. Instead, we found a dystopian nightmare: a highly securitized camp lacking in the most basic infrastructure. Security cameras and barbed wire scale the centre creating a ‘prison-like’ environment. People did not have enough water or adequate healthcare, and, in some cases, even beds. All the while being unable to leave the centre for weeks, sometimes months on end,” said Deprose Muchena.
Systemic, arbitrary and unlawful detention
Residents are systematically subjected to “restrictions of freedom” orders which confine them to the center for up to 25 days from their entry. These restrictions exceed legitimate “restrictions of freedom of movement” and amount to unlawful detention. They are overwhelmingly applied to new arrivals without consideration of individual circumstances, in breach of international law and standards, which state that detention solely for immigration purposes is only allowed in the most exceptional of circumstances.
Amnesty International saw evidence that the implementation of these measures is also deeply flawed, with people being detained beyond the permitted limit of 25 days, often without a written decision or based on a back-dated one.
Furthermore, especially during times of overcrowding in the center, residents have faced situations of undignified living conditions which may have been in breach of the prohibition of ill-treatment.
“We are facing mental health issues. I escaped from the war. We left Syria to have a better future […] not [to be] here in unsafe, unclean [conditions], difficult for all reasons. I left my family back home and now I feel punished here,” said Nabil*, a man from Syria living in the center.
Although restrictions of freedom orders are seemly “race-neutral” and affect all new entrants of centers, they almost exclusively affect racialized asylum seekers. Greece must ensure that its migration policies do not result in racially discriminatory outcomes, which are contrary to international law.
The European Commission’s support for the creation and operation of the centre enhances its responsibilities for any resulting violations. Like all new EU-funded centers, the Samos site is designed to comply with the principles underpinning the EU Migration and Asylum Pact, a set of recently adopted reforms to EU asylum law. Amnesty International consistently expressed concern that the Pact would weaken access to asylum and increase the risk of human rights violations and de facto detention, notably through the restrictions to migrants’ movements while undergoing screening and border asylum and return procedures.
“Samos provides a window into the future of the Pact and offers a critical opportunity for the EU and its member states to change course. Greek asylum rules on ‘restrictions of freedom’ must be urgently repealed and to this end the European Commission needs to advance its infringement proceedings against Greece to ensure compliance with EU law,” said Deprose Muchena. “The EU must act urgently to ensure that the use of restrictive measures during migration procedures does not result in widespread unlawful detention and other abuses, as we are seeing in Samos. Failing to do so would not only radically undermine EU fundamental rights standards, but drastically increase human trauma and suffering at borders.”
Background
The research was conducted between December 2023 and July 2024 and is based on meetings, interviews and exchanges with residents of the center, representatives of the Greek authorities, civil society organizations and UN agencies. The research is also accompanied by artwork from residents to visually represent their feelings and experiences of life in the center. The artwork was created during workshops held in collaboration with Samos Volunteers. An online gallery is available here.
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