SAMOS – Greece today inaugurated the first of five new “closed” migrant camps, opposed by rights groups who say the strict access measures are too restrictive.
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 (RM1.4 billion) for the new camps on Greece’s five Aegean islands – Leros, Lesbos, Kos, Chios, as well as 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 centre and will only be accessible via electronic chip.
Gates will remain closed at night.
“The model of the controlled structures will be gradually transferred to all the islands and Greece’s mainland,” Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said a few months ago.
The Leros camp is expected to be finished next month, while on Lesbos – home to Moria, Europe’s largest camp and 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 assures 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.
Up to 600 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 said, responding to anger among the local community who, for years, watched as the camp ballooned on the outskirts of their village. – AFP, September 18, 2021
