The non-governmental organization Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) has reported that, contrary to the Greek government’s narrative, EU-funded migrant camps suffer shortcomings and inefficiencies that are making the lives of those staying there a misery. , Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) 

The new report is based on research conducted by the RSA between February 15 and March 31, 2023, including field research in Lesbos and Kos and through telephone interviews. It also made use of statistics covering the most recent period through April.

The data included in the report, according to RSA, “were collected from cases we have undertaken and our experience in the field, communications with organizations in the field, testimonies from asylum seekers residing in the structures, people working in the structures, volunteers and actors in solidarity living on the islands, as well as official communications with the competent authorities and UNHCR.”

EU-funded centers ‘black holes’

“Seven years after singing the toxic EU-Turkey ‘agreement’, the East Aegean islands remain black holes for the fundamental rights of applicants for international protection,” said the report in its introductory note.

The RSA added: “In the Closed Controlled Access Centers (CCAC) on Samos, Kos and Leros — the construction of which was 100% funded by the European Union — as well as those on Lesbos and Chios, asylum seekers and their children live in remote areas with disproportionate security and surveillance measures, facing reported violent behavior by security authorities and with significant shortcomings in legal assistance, medical care, and interpretation.”

While the ruling New Democracy government has been at pains to project a somewhat idyllic picture of the operation of the CCAC camps on the islands as an example of how Athens has successfully tackled the ongoing refugee crisis and reduced the number of asylum seekers coming on to Greece as well as staying on the islands, the RSA say that the reality is very different.

Arrivals increase, facilities remote and expensive

RSA research in the report also highlights not only the increase in arrivals and hosted refugees on the islands, but mainly the significant deficiencies and shortcomings across the range of refugee reception services.

The report, which is entitled “What is happening today in the refugee structures on the Aegean islands: Serious problems in the EU-funded structures”, highlights not only the increase in arrivals and guests on the islands (69% more arrivals and 46% more residents on the islands in February 2023 compared to February 2022, a 195% increase in arrivals on the islands in 2022 compared to 2021), but a range of problems, from the difficult and expensive access to remote structures to excessive means of entry and exit control, and from shortages of medical staff, interpreters and legal aid services to delays in the provision of monthly financial aid.

“Housing and security conditions may have improved in the facilities on the five islands compared to the past (with the exception of the Western Lesbos Controlled Temporary Accommodation Facility for Asylum Seekers), as there are no longer tents and makeshift shelters, but they still do not meet the needs reception and protection of applicants for international protection despite the huge sums that have been given for their construction,” the report points out, concluding that: “Seven years after the signing of the toxic EU-Turkey “agreement”.

The RSA report also states that “it appears that government and European policy, which provided €121 million in November 2020 for the centers in Samos, Kos and Leros and an additional €155 million in March 2021 for the new centers in Lesbos and Chios, has simply ensured to hide the problems from public view by creating prison-like ghettos far removed from the magical image of modern structures”.

It remains to be seen if there will be any response from the Greek government, with all the focus now on other issues in view of the national elections which will be held later this month on May 21.

The full report by RSA can be read at: https://rsaegean.org/en/ccac-aegean-islands-greece/