Greek islands

Oxfam's new report details how the system to identify and protect the most vulnerable people has broken down due to chronic under-staffing and flawed processes. 

Greece and its EU partners are failing pregnant women, unaccompanied children, victims of torture or sexual violence and other vulnerable people who seek protection in Europe. In EU 'hotspot' camps on the Greek islands, people are being put at risk by flawed processes, chronic understaffing and squalid, overcrowded conditions.

As the EU plans to set up ‘controlled centres’ for refugees and other migrants across Europe, the number of people trapped in deplorable conditions in EU ‘hotspots’ and other camps on the Greek islands has reached an unprecedented 20,110, according to Greek government figures.

The Greek Council of State's lifting of movement restrictions on asylum seekers arriving on the Greek Islands confirms the unlawfulness of the containment policy and its inefficiency. Nonetheless, the government rushed to reinstate them.

As the two-year anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal nears on March 18, 2018, thousands of asylum seekers are trapped on the Aegean islands in deplorable conditions and without access to adequate protection and basic services, nine humans rights and humanitarian organisations including Oxfam said today.The Greek government should act immediately to end the containment policy that traps asylum seekers in these conditions on the islands and move them to safety on the mainland.

 

More than 13,500 refugees and other migrants remain trapped on the Greek islands in deplorable conditions as winter begins, a coalition of 13 NGOs including Oxfam said today. Oxfam calls on the Greek government and its EU partners to transfer immediately at least 5,500 asylum seekers from the squalid island camps to the Greek mainland.

The Greek government has said it intends to transfer 5,000 people from the Greek islands to the mainland before the start of winter. This is a very positive step that will save lives, but thousands remain at risk from freezing conditions and the Greek government and EU must end the containment policy immediately, Oxfam said.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras should end the Greek government’s “containment policy” of confining asylum seekers to the Aegean islands, 19 human rights and humanitarian aid organizations said in an open letter released today.