MSF warns of impact of closed detention center model on health of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers on Aegean islands. First such center opened on Samos in 2013, with others planned for 2023 on Lesvos and Chios. Access-controlled access centers are ‘the result of an aggressive containment policy, funded by the European Union (EU), to open controlled access centers’ in remote locations on five Aegeans islands.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has warned that internment centers for asylum seekers in Greece do not meet the basic needs of these people and unnecessarily harm their mental and physical health. ‘People at the Zervou center tell us that they have survived human trafficking, sexual assault, forced labor and beatings,’ lamented Nicholas Papachrysostomou, MSF’s general coordinator.
MSF has denounced that the main shortcoming is the ‘lack of access to health care’ for asylum seekers on the Greek island of Samos, according to World Health Organization (WHO) director Christos Tsiolkas. He also stressed that MSF’s experiences show ‘the dangers of closed centers’ and highlight that ‘asylum seekers need access to quality and timely medical care’. ‘Authorities should invest in decent reception conditions and safe accommodations, such as housing’, he said.
MSF has warned that those who have lived traumatic experiences ‘suffer a deterioration of mental health’ inside the detention centers. Since February 2022, the center has only been visited by medical staff on occasional days and for only a few hours. Healthcare inside the centers remains problematic due to the continuing lack of medical personnel and medical equipment.
The indicators of psychological trauma were present in 40% of the patients with mental health issues who were being treated by MSF on Samos. The MSF medical coordinator in Greece, Elise Loyens, stated that ‘it always manifests with the same symptoms: physical pains, dissociation, sadness, sleep difficulties’ and that ‘people feel embarrassed in these situations’, she said.
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