Three fires in Samos camp — Open Letter to the European Commission
Between the hours of Sunday evening, April 26, and Monday afternoon, April 27, three separate fires broke out in the Samos camp for refugees and asylum-seekers, destroying many homes and camp facilities. An estimated five hundred people have lost their homes and belongings in the blaze. Some residents are still without a shelter for the night.
The Aegean Island is located near to Turkey — one and a half kilometer at its closest point — making it a popular route for people wanting to apply for asylum in Greece. The camp on Samos is severely overcrowded — currently more than 7,000 people live in a former military facility that is built to house 648 people.
Under the current asylum law, people have to wait for a decision on their asylum application before they are allowed to move on or will be sent back to Turkey. This is agreed in the EU-Turkey deal. A huge backlog of past applications and an understaffed asylum service due to budget cuts in Greece’s public sector imposed by the EU and IMF means that many people have to stay on Samos for more than a year before they receive a decision — often the process takes even longer.
The conditions in the camp are abysmal. Inside a barbed-wire fence, the official Reception and Identification Centre, people inhabit cramped containers. Outside the official camp, in the so-called ‘jungle’, migrants cluster in the trees in squalid collections of tents, shacks, and tarpaulins tied to branches.
With only a few services available, people sometimes have to queue for hours — for example in the food line. Most people have little to no access to showers. The lack of washing machines leads to the spread of parasites such as bed bugs and scabies. Medical care is provided mostly by NGOs or understaffed public health organisations. With only one doctor, a few nurses and midwives, it is impossible to provide adequate medical care for a vulnerable and weakened population of over 7,000.
As a result, depression and PTSD are common medical issues faced. Living in these conditions causes people to be on edge, leading to violence. It is an unsafe place for women, with many cases of sexual and gender-based violence.
COVID-19 containment measures and the boredom that followed after nearly all NGOs on the island had to temporarily suspend their services amplified the frustration of many residents.
The three fires that broke out two weeks ago are recent examples of existing tensions reaching their boiling point.
Sadly, it is the second time in less than a year that a large area of the camp has burned down. On the 14th of October 2019, more than 700 people’s tents and belongings were lost. This is a trend that we are seeing across the camps of the Greek islands.
On the 18th of April 2020, a fire broke out in the Vial camp on Chios, destroying many camp facilities and housing containers. On the 16th of March 2020, a child was killed in a fire in the Moria camp on Lesvos. On the 5th of December 2019, a man was killed in a fire in the Kara Tepe camp on Lesvos. On the 29th of September 2019, two people were killed in a blaze in the Moria camp.
Despite these recurring incidents, little has been done to decongest the overcrowded camps.
It is a wonder that no one died in this most recent series of fires on Samos. Greek local communities and humanitarian organisations have been sounding the alarm for several years now, but to little response from political actors.
Sixteen organisations working on Samos wrote an open letter to the European Commission to express their outrage at the devastating fires in and around the Vathy Reception and Identification Centre. In it, they call upon the EC for the urgent evacuation of the overcrowded camps on the Aegean Islands to appropriate facilities.
Read the letter below:
Open letter to:
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen
The Commissioner, Migration and Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson
The Director General, Migration and Home Affairs, Monique Pariat
The Vice-President, Promoting our European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas
We, the undersigned independent, non-governmental organisations, are writing to express our distress and frustration with the devastating fires on the Greek island of Samos on Sunday 26 and Monday 27 April 2020.
Between the hours of Sunday evening and Monday afternoon, three fires broke out in and around the Reception and Identification Centre (RIC) on Samos. Though it is currently unknown how many containers and tents have been destroyed, it is clear that many people — several hundred — have lost their homes and belongings.
The threat of COVID-19 poses immeasurable risk to the residents of the five RICs across the Greek islands. Faced with this pandemic, directives from the European Union (EU) have emphasised the need to practice social distancing, adhere to strict hygiene measures and “cocoon” our elderly and medically vulnerable. In the camp on Samos, currently almost ten times over capacity at 6,869 residents, this is entirely unfeasible — and in the aftermath of the most recent fires, utterly impossible.
Severe overcrowding and a lack of adequate accommodation and services have led to incidents of violence before. This is the second time in less than a year that a large area of the camp has burned down. On 14 October 2019, the tents and belongings of more than 700 people were lost. We voiced our outrage, and yet, little has been done to decongest the camp. This week, these same factors, combined with tension due to restrictive measures against COVID-19, resulted in the fires.
At this moment on Samos, many camp residents, among them families with young children, pregnant women and people with disabilities and underlying health conditions, are without shelter or blankets. Most are displaced because their homes were destroyed in the blaze, while others are simply too frightened to return to the camp.
These fires are not unique to Samos. Regrettably, there have been similar incidents since September 2019 on both Chios and Lesvos, in which three people have lost their lives.
These incidents and fatalities are the direct consequence of deficient European solidarity. The EU must move beyond the “hotspot approach” and revise the EU-Turkey Statement, which has proven itself to be not only inefficient, but also inhumane.
Non-governmental organisations, human rights groups and local Greek communities have been sounding the alarm for several years now, but to little effective response from political actors beyond empty rhetoric. What next catastrophe are we waiting for before the EU fulfills its responsibilities, and honours its values of human dignity and human rights?
Once again, we stand together in calling upon the European Commission to urgently assist Greece in evacuating the 38,700 people living in the camps of the Aegean Islands to appropriate facilities of sufficient sanitary standards, starting with those most at risk to COVID-19.
Sustainable political solutions involving Member State responsibility and relocation mechanisms are required to achieve long-term decongestion of the islands. But now is the time for emergency action.
The response of European Member States to COVID-19 shows how quickly policy can change to protect society’s most vulnerable. The EU must act now to ensure the safety of the 38,700 asylum-seekers living on the Aegean Islands in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights.
List of Signatories:
Action for Education
Avocats Sans Frontières France (ASF France)
The Flying Seagulls Project
Glocal Roots
Help Refugees / Choose Love
Indigo Volunteers
Med’Equaliteam
Movement on the Ground
Precious Plastic Samos
Project Armonia
Project TEN
Refugee4Refugees
Refugee Law Clinic Berlin
Samos Volunteers
Still I Rise
Verein FAIR