“People when they arrive think the camp will be a place to heal from their previous life, but they don't”

“People when they arrive think the camp will be a place to heal from their previous life, but they don’t.” 

 

The respondent is a young man who arrived at the Samos Closed Controlled Access Center (CCAC) in early 2023 [further personal details are not being disclosed due to the respondent’s fear of potential retaliation].

 

The respondent reports to suffer from depression and other mental health issues for several years, and that since he is in the CCAC, his body reacts "worse" to his fear than before: "small things" scare him “like hell”, he reports having panic attacks regularly inside the camp, and that there is “no help available for him”. He described seeking the CCAC's psychologist’s attention several times and not being seen: one time because the security guards at the door stopped him and told him he could not enter, and two times because the psychologist had not put his name on her appointments list. Due to his mental condition, a psychiatrist in the public hospital in Samos prescribed him medication. He reports that he was drawing pictures, but all his drawings were negative and dark.

 

The respondent states that, when he entered the CCAC in 2023 through the gate, there was a police officer shouting at him and “trying to intimidate me”. The respondent had a bottle of water with him, and the police officer accused the respondent of having brought alcohol. The policeman reportedly said “It’s not your business if we make mistakes; if we say it’s alcohol it’s alcohol”. The police officer reportedly put his hand on his gun which the respondent interpreted as a gesture of intimidation and which scared the respondent a lot. The respondent reports that after the incident he was very scared: “I got into a “fight or flight” mode, my heart was going crazy”. For a while, he was unable to sleep well and eat properly.

 

The respondent describes that the CCTV cameras in the CCAC make him feel “like a prisoner”. Additionally, after 9 pm, every gate in the CCAC is reportedly locked, so “if you want to see someone after 9 pm, it’s not possible”. He reports that, in order to enter and leave the CCAC, the residents must take off their shoes to have them inspected. Furthermore, it is forbidden to bring certain electronic devices in: when the respondent tried to bring an extension cord into the CCAC, the security guards reportedly told him to return it to the city. Similarly, the security guards did not allow him to bring in a kettle to make coffee.

 

The respondent further reports that there have been explosions audible in the camp due to the proximity of the facility to a military training field. He describes there were three daily explosions for training before Easter twice a week, in the morning (military drills), from 10 to 11:30 am. The explosions had reportedly stopped after Easter but started again on May 15th. The respondent reports that the explosions scare him and other camp residents because it reminds them of previous events in their lives.

 

Regarding his quality of sleep, the respondent reports that he woke up six times the previous night, and in general does not sleep well because “sometimes I just remember things, and also you don’t have a pillow, so you use a blanket, it’s not comfortable for the neck”. The respondent further reports that once a week on average the police break into the containers, “to stop protestors, sometimes for medical cases (suicide)”, so he feels paranoid that they might come and take him. He reports that ”the police can call you on the microphone [there is a speaker in the CCAC through which the camp management communicates with residents] and don’t say why they are calling, that they want to ask you questions, they just say “go here”, “wait here”, “come to first reception”. The respondent reports that when he once got called on the public speaker, he went to the "first reception" and there were five policemen waiting for him. While he was waiting for them to address him, another resident reportedly tried to communicate with him, and a policeman said “Stay away, don’t speak to him”. He recognised some of the policemen present from his identification interview.

 

The respondent reports to have been interrogated by the police several times since the day he arrived on Samos. He is scared and afraid that the police are trying to press legal charges against him. He reports that he was interrogated on two days for several hours about his arrival on Samos and was also asked if he wants to become an informant for the police. During the first day of questioning, the police reportedly asked the respondent questions about his life in his home country, how long he was in Turkey and what he did there; his family, his work, his experience, and when he decided to come to Europe. The respondent told them he had wanted to go to Cyprus to work there. The police reportedy told him that there is no charge against him but that they want his testimony. They also asked him questions about the Izmir region in Turkey, and how he got in touch with smugglers, where he met them, and whether he would be able to recognise them if he saw them again. The respondent reports to have told the police that he would not be able to recognise the smugglers and that “nobody knows them”. The police also asked about the boat he came to Greece with, how he organised the trip, and how the trip went. Reportedly, no verbal or physical violence was used during the questioning. During the interview, he asked to continue on a different day because “I didn’t feel well, I had the worst headache of my life”, but the police just said “We’ll finish soon” and carried on. During the questioning, one police officer reportedly offered to help him “with his procedure”, and to get a passport if, in exchange, he became an informant in the camp. The officer reportedly said things like “If you answer questions well with us, we can cooperate, we also do this with other people.” The respondent reportedly refused and told the police that he would “rather die than collaborate with them”.

 

The respondent describes that, the day after he was questioned for the first time, the security guards at the entrance searched his body and every item in his backpack when returning from the city to the CCAC. Reportedly, while he was being checked, a police officer approached the respondent and told him “I’ve been waiting for you all day, why don’t you answer your phone?”. The police officer told the respondent that he had tried to call him several times during the day but he had not responded. The officer asked the respondent to come with him to the police container in the CCAC, where he had to stay for about two hours. There, the police officer reportedly asked the respondent more questions about his trip to Greece and how he is earning money. The respondent reports that the officer called him a “smuggler facilitator”. The officer also asked him for names of smugglers. Since he was questioned, the respondent tries to avoid the police, and when confronted with police officers, he tries to avoid eye contact and limits his answers if he has to talk to them. The respondent reports that there are also around six or seven police in civilian clothing present in the CCAC.

 

The respondent reports that, before coming to Europe, his fear was to die under the rubble of his house, but he thought that he would feel safe once he reached Europe. Now he experiences fear “in a different way”, he fears having legal charges brought against him, or even being killed.

 

The respondent reports that the food provision in the Samos CCAC is insufficient. He describes the food as follows: for breakfast, he receives a croissant, sometimes without sugar, with a small box of jam, a glass of milk, and one apple. Sometimes he is given a piece of cheese but it is very hard to chew. For lunch he gets dishes like spaghetti with tomato sauce, fries, rice, chicken, or fried fish. The respondent reports that the fried fish is not good so people take the fried part, cook it again and eat it, but throw away the actual fish. The food is packed in black plastic boxes and sealed. He describes the food as never being enough, which is why he takes a lot of supplements. The respondent reports that the food causes digestion issues and discomfort in the stomach: “When you go to the toilet you don’t feel well.” He reports that the amount of vegetables that the CCAC residents are given is really low, only once a week they get one or two tomatoes or a quarter of a cucumber. The respondent explains that the quality of the food he is given is also bad, “the chicken they provide us is the worst I ever had in my life”. The respondent describes the food to have gone off, and that the smell makes him want to puke. He reports that most people do not want to eat it because they do not believe it is killed in the right way [not halal]. The respondent reports that he knows a pregnant woman who got sick recently because of the food during her last trimester of pregnancy, and that she started to experience dizziness all the time and she was puking, which is why she was taken to the hospital.

 

The respondent reports that the food impacts his mental health and his body: “You feel depressed all the time. People get their food from NGOs when they can. The quality is bad, and since nobody can take your food for you, you can’t have it if you have business outside.” The only things he consumes are the tomatoes, the boiled eggs (but sometimes they are frozen and have a smell) and the juice boxes. The respondent also describes the water that is being distributed in the CCAC as tasting like metal. The respondent reports to suffer from digestion problems and that his body needs a long time to heal. The bathrooms are reportedly cleaned every 24h in section B3/B4 of the Samos CCAC [the section the respondent lives in], and there are 20 toilets, but many toilets are closed because sometimes people are breaking the doorknob to reserve the toilet for themselves. Reportedly there are water cuts during the day, during which only the toilet flushes work.