Advocacy - 2022
1-Year Samos CCAC Joint Statement
22 September | Joint Statement
This week marks 1-year since the opening of the Samos Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC). This CCAC was the first of five to be opened across the Aegean Islands and sets a precedent for hostile migration policy across Europe. The facility stands in stark contrast with the values of integration and inclusion, and fails to support both new arrivals and local host communities.
“Controlled access camps have devastating impacts on the mental health of residents. 91% of refugees and asylum seekers supported by the IRC at the centre have reported severe distress as a result of the living conditions, including anxiety, depression and thoughts of suicide.” - the International Rescue Committee
Samos Volunteers, along with 22 organisations, co-signed the joint statement calling on governments of the EU and Greece to respect the fundamental rights, well-being and dignity of all those seeking international protection.
Read the full joint statement here.
1-Year Samos CCAC Report
20 September | Report
To mark the opening of the Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC), the Samos Advocacy Collective has published a report looks back on the year since the CCAC was inaugurated and residents were transferred from Vathy camp to the new facility in Zervou. The report is mainly built upon direct quotes from residents. The aim of the publication is to let the quotes and photos, and the individuals behind them, speak for themselves.
The Samos CCAC sets the tone for a hostile European migration policy. This CCAC was the first of five EU-funded facilities built on the Aegean islands of Samos, Lesvos, Chios, Kos and Leros. The whole project was funded by 250 million euros from the European Union, with 43 million euros dedicated for the construction of the Samos CCAC.
The words and photographs paint a powerful picture - one that is often in contrast to the narratives shared by the Greek Government and European Union. The political will to marginalise people in refugee and migrant communities and create barriers for such communities to integrate with the local society has wrongfully become standard practice. Far from the public eyes, human rights violations are frequent.
With the agenda of the CCAC to ‘make invisible’ those who reside there, it is crucial to listen to people with lived experience and continue to advocate for fair, humane and dignified migration policy and reception.
Read the full report here.
Situation for LGBTQI+ Asylum Seekers in Greece
29 August | Letter
People with diverse #SOGIESC seeking asylum in Greece face insecurity, inadequate shelter, lack of appropriate support and a hostile asylum system.
Samos Volunteers, together with 36 organisations, calls on Greek authorities for urgent action to resolve the mistreatment of LGBTQI+ asylum seekers in Greece.
Samos LGBTQI+ Group is a safe space for LGBTQI+ people claiming asylum, as well as a community that advocates for LGBTQI+ rights worldwide and for the protection of displaced people self-identifying as queer.
Read the full letter here.
Article 46 - Samos Human Rights Defenders' Letter of Concern
18 July | Letter of Concern | Press Release
Samos Volunteers, along with organisations on Samos, calls for Frontex to trigger Article 46 of the European Border and Coast Guard Regulation (EU) 2019/1896 and take steps to end its operations in Samos and wider Greece.
Frontex does not comply with its legal mandate of protecting human rights - as required by its status as an EU agency. Furthermore, there is mounting evidence to suggest that Frontex is complicit in human rights abuses, including abandonment at sea, torture and death, through the illegal practice of pushbacks.
Border Violence Monitoring Network has also called for Frontex to withdraw its operations in Greece and for the EU Commission to initiate non-reimbursement of funds until rule of law is restored.
“There is overwhelming evidence that Frontex is complicit, if not directly involved, with the illegal practices of pushbacks, collective expulsion, torture and murder. Frontex’s presence on the island does not ensure that people are able to claim their right to seek asylum, instead the agency turns a blind eye and funds the consistent violation of human rights happening at the borders of Europe.” - the Samos Advocacy Collective
Read the full letter here.
“A Life Without Freedom Is Not A Life” - Life in the Controlled Access Centre in Samos
20 July | Report
This year, on World Refugee Day, the Samos Advocacy Collective and Europe Must Act are releasing their second report recounting the experiences of people living in the Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC) on Samos.
Following up on the previous report published in December 2021, the testimonies of camp residents provide more evidence that life in the CCAC is tantamount to life in prison and that the EU-funded centre does not uphold the fundamental rights and freedoms of people seeking safety.
“I don't feel safe in the camp at any time. When I'm already in the camp it's stress, it's depression, it's stress that starts.” - A resident of the Samos camp
“We must listen to the overwhelming number of testimonies that state that such policies have the agenda to dehumanise, deter and violate those seeking safety in Europe, and collectively demand that the competent authorities ensure the human rights, safety and dignity of displaced people.” - the Samos Advocacy Collective
On this World Refugee Day, we stress the need for the situation faced by people claiming asylum in Europe to be dealt with as a matter of urgency. There must be safe legal routes to claim asylum and dignified treatment for all people, regardless of race and religion, seeking safety.
Read the full report “A Life Without Freedom Is Not A Life” here.
“Greece must revoke the decision to consider Turkey a safe country” Petition
9 June | Petition
Turkey was designated as a ‘safe third country’ for Syrians refugees in the 2016 EU-Turkey Deal. Nationalities for which Turkey was deemed ‘safe’ were widened to include refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Somalia in the Joint Ministerial Decision by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Migration and Asylum published on the 7th June 2021.
In issuing this decision, Greece declared that nationals of those five countries that had passed through Turkey before claiming asylum in Greece could have their claim in Greece dismissed. People of these nationalities are now subject to the new admissibility procedure, irrespective of their vulnerability and notwithstanding how long they have been in Greece. The procedure is instigated with a view to returning the person to Turkey, before their reasons for fleeing their country and claiming asylum are ever heard.
Samos Volunteers, along with organisations and civil society groups, call for the revocation of the Joint Ministerial Decision issued one year ago - given it is unlawful, inhumane and unworkable.
Show your support by signing and sharing the petition here.
“For refugees and asylum seekers residing on Lesvos, mental health remains an invisible vulnerability”
Accessible mental health support for people claiming asylum in Greece is often overlooked as meeting a basic human right.
People seeking asylum in Greece at large face severe shortcomings in mental health support. We have long witnessed ongoing systematic neglect and patient rights violations of refugees with psychological concerns.
Samos Volunteers and 15 other organisations call on the Greek Government to prioritise and facilitate access to national health service for asylum seeker.
Read the full policy brief written by Fenix Legal Aid above.
"The Voice of the Voiceless" Newsletter - April 2022
21 April | Newsletter
“We are people from different communities living in the Closed Controlled Access Centre in Samos, Greece. In this newsletter, we are raising our voices to whoever is concerned against the difficulties we have in the camp of Samos.”
We realised the need to raise awareness of the situations we are facing in the camp, so we are sharing insights on our daily life to amplify our voices.”
This newsletter, from title to content, has been written and curated by people who both currently live in and have lived in the Samos CCAC.
Read the full newsletter here.
NGOs welcome the resumption of cash assistance for asylum-seekers in Greece, call for gaps to be urgently filled
8 March | Press Release
The months-long suspension of cash assistance for asylum-seekers since October 2021 has caused significant hardship across Greece. Today Samos Volunteers and 13 other NGOs and civil society organisations welcome the restoration of programme, whiles warning that many individuals still remain without assistance.
Read the full press release here.
Joint Civil Society Letter: Implementation of the safe third country concept in Greece
8 March | Letter
Samos Volunteers along with 26 civil society organisations “active in the areas of asylum and migration in Greece urge the European Commission to promptly take the necessary measures against Greece to ensure effective compliance with Article 38(4) of the Asylum Procedures Directive. The organisations highlight the need to ensure that asylum seekers to whom the safe third country concept has been applied have their applications promptly examined on the merits and are provided with respective legal status and adequate reception conditions, as well as to safeguard the integrity of the Common European Asylum System against systematic non-compliance.” (RSA)
Read the full letter here.
LGBTQI+ Refugees in Greece Need Safety and Protection, Not Discrimination and Fear
1 March | Letter
To mark the Zero Discrimination Day 2022, Samos Volunteers and the Samos LGBTQI+ Group, along with six organisations, share the challenges faced by LGBTQI+ people claiming asylum in Greece, along with recommendations to:
(1) ensure their safety and security,
(2) address their vulnerabilities and provide support,
(3) resolve their issues within the asylum process, and
(4) support their integration in society
Read the full joint statement here.
Violence Within State Borders: Greece
28 February | Report
Border Violence Monitoring Network’s “report considers violence within state borders experienced by people-on the-move and those seeking asylum in Greece. It draws on 40 testimonies collected in the last months of violence in detention, police brutality, racist violence, and hate crimes, as well as open- source data on structural forms of violence present in the management of migration and asylum in Greece. Since the BVMN’s last report on internal violence in Greece in October 2020, the situation has continued to deteriorate, leaving POM at increasing risk of both physical, actual harm, and structural violence against their living conditions and immediate amenities.” (BVMN)
The report focuses on specific case studies - the CCAC in Samos is a site that BVMN investigates in the report.
Read the full report here.