CHILDREN HOUSED IN an EU-funded asylum seeker centre on the Greek island of Samos are suffering from malnutrition, according to doctors treating people there. 

The medical NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said physicians working at a Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC) on Samos have reported six cases of malnutrition among young children.

MSF general director in Greece, Cristina Psarra, said that children aged between six months and six years have been diagnosed with “severe or moderate acute malnutrition—serious medical conditions requiring urgent care”. 

“This is the first time MSF has identified malnutrition in the facility since MSF began working there in 2021, she said. 

“Children make up approximately one-quarter of the centre’s population, yet paediatric care is inadequate not only in the CCAC but across Samos Island.

“Additionally, cash assistance for asylum seekers has been halted since June—nine months ago—leaving families without the means to buy essential nutritious food for their children.”

MSF has called the on Greek authorities and EU institutions to ensure “a healthy and safe environment for refugee children, including adequate paediatric healthcare and reinstate cash assistance so families so they can afford nutritious food”.

CCACs are a form of asylum seeker accommodation and processing centre first established by the Greek government in 2021, with financial support from the European Union. They are the model for the “multi-purpose” centres outlined in the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact, which was adopted last year.

As a signatory to the Pact, Ireland has committed to creating similar processing centres near ports of entry.

MSF staff and coast guard officers help a pregnant woman and other survivors after a boat carrying migrants ran into trouble off the coast of Samos. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The CCAC on Samos – one of a number across the Greek islands – has been described as a “dystopian nightmare” by the human rights NGO Amnesty International. 

During a visit to the Samos in 2023, Amnesty staff said they found “a highly securitized camp lacking in the most basic infrastructure and services, where, under the pretext of conducting identification procedures, the authorities systematically subject people seeking asylum to unlawful and arbitrary detention”

MSF’s report on conditions on Samos comes a day after the EU’s border enforcement agency Frontex announced it was investigating alleged violations of the human rights of asylum seekers by Greek authorities. 

Greece has been accused of illegally turning people away from its islands by pushing boats back out to sea, in contravention of international law. 

In a January ruling, the European Court of Human Rights described Greece’s use of summary expulsions of asylum seekers, known as pushbacks, as being systematic. UN experts have also urged Greece to ensure its border policies are transparent and impartial. 

Greece has denied its immigration policies violate international law but in a report from 2023, MSF detailed testimony from people who reported being pushed back out to sea after arriving on Greek islands. 

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