Refugee camp opened on Samos: "Like a prison"

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Drone images show the system from the air: the barbed wire fences, the secured entrance gates, the security personnel.

On Saturday, a new refugee camp opened on the Greek island of Samos with space for 3,000 people.

It is equipped with X-ray scanners and magnetic doors, has a prison camp and is only accessible via an electronic chip.

According to the Greek media, people are allowed to leave the camp between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. every day - except for those whose asylum applications have been rejected.

The gates remain closed for everyone overnight.

Refugee organizations criticize the camp.

Iorgos Karagiannis, Doctors Without Borders

»For us it is like a prison.

It shows that EU politicians would rather implement harmful laws than care about people and their asylum.

Children should play behind these fences, our patients should live there and will be held there.

That's the truth."

The Greek government defended the concept.

Notis Mitarakis, Migration Minister Greece

»We have introduced a new model, so-called closed centers with controlled access, which on the one hand offer better living conditions with more space for every refugee, with all the important facilities and the standard that one would expect from an EU country expected.

On the other hand, there are better security conditions for asylum seekers, the workforce and the surrounding communities. "

The EU has provided 276 million euros for the facility.

The camp on Samos is intended to serve as a pilot project for the refugee camps on the other islands.

Two years ago, more than 10,000 migrants arrived in Samos; this year there have been 111 so far.

With stricter controls on the maritime border and the relocation of people to the mainland, Greece was able to massively reduce the number of arriving refugees. The country is also accused of systematically abandoning asylum seekers in the Aegean Sea. Athens denies these illegal pushbacks.