Doctors Without Borders (MSF), a medical charity, reported on Monday that it has identified the first cases of malnourished children at a migrant camp on Greece’s Samos Island, which has faced criticism from rights groups over its unsafe living conditions.
MSF doctors have diagnosed six children from Syria and Afghanistan, aged between six months to six years, with acute malnutrition needing immediate help, it said.
While it could not say if their malnutrition was due to living in the camp, conditions there – including insufficient food and medical care – endangered their health, MSF said.
‘Systemic Neglect’
“No child should suffer from malnutrition due to systemic neglect,” said Christina Psarra, director general of MSF Greece, calling for immediate action and adding that about a quarter of the camp’s residents were children.
The Greek migration ministry said it would release a statement later on Monday.
On the forefront of Europe’s 2015-16 migration crisis, Greece saw a surge in arrivals in 2024, according to U.N. data. This year, nearly a third of arrivals to southern Europe from the Middle East and Africa were to Greece.
The EU-funded Samos camp, a sprawling, heavily-surveilled facility surrounded by barbed wire, was opened by the government in 2021 to replace the former camp of Vathy – once an overcrowded, rat-infested tent city of 7,000 people.
The six malnourished children arrived this year, MSF said.
‘Inhumane And Degrading’
Rights group Amnesty International has called conditions at Samos “inhumane and degrading” during periods of overcrowding, with water shortages and a lack of other basic services.
In December, a U.N. human rights expert accused Greece of failing to identify victims of sex trafficking in the camp.
MSF called on Greece and the EU to ensure adequate pediatric care and nutritional support in Samos and to restore financial support to asylum seekers suspended last June.
(With inputs from Reuters)
