The new camp on the Greek island of Samos resembles a prison - although an EU authority had warned precisely against it.
Ippen Investigativ uses internal documents and on-site research to show what this means for those affected.
By Franziska Grillmeier and Vera Deleja-Hotko with Katy Fallon and Elisa Perriguer
Farid Wali gets off the bus, holding his little daughter Ava by the hand.
A uniformed security guard opens the trunk of the bus.
Inside are black plastic bags filled with blankets and clothes, a mirror and bags full of bread and sweets.
Wali, whose real name is different, and his daughter stand in line with the other refugees.
When it is their turn, father and daughter spread their arms from their bodies.
A woman in a protective vest scans the two with a metal detector.
Then they are allowed to enter the forecourt to the turnstiles.
The sun reflects the light on the white containers, and a three-meter-high chain link fence surrounds the site.
On it: NATO barbed wire with barbs.
Trying to get past this fence can be fatal.
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Refugees live in Nato barbed wire in the new camp on Samos
© Fayad Mulla
"Closed Controlled Access Center of Samos" - translated: "Closed, controlled arrival center of Samos" - is written on a banner that hangs over Wali and his daughter.
The metal turnstiles crack every time a person walks through them.
Security guards search the refugees' luggage for explosives.
Everyone who wants to pass has to give their fingerprint and is given a chip card.
Wali and his daughter are only allowed to leave the camp between eight in the morning and eight in the evening.
The Greek police and a private security company patrol 24 hours a day, and drones fly over the area, which is supposed to offer space for 3,000 refugees.
Numerous surveillance cameras transmit live images from the warehouse to a command center.
Some cameras are mounted in such a way that they film the beds of the refugees when the door is open.
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Farid Wali's daughter in the new refugee camp on Samos.
© Franziska Grillmeier
Wali kneels next to his daughter, who is reading the wire mesh with her fingers.
There are watchtowers behind them.
The double-row chain link fence stretches for meters around the entire site.
“I lied to her,” he tells us through the chain link fence.
“I told her we were going to Athens.
But this is a prison. "
Five new refugee camps for 276 million euros
The European Union has provided the Greek government with 276 million euros for the construction of five so-called “Multiple Purpose Reception and Identification Centers”. On the islands of Samos, Kos, Leros and Chios, the EU is funding the construction of new camps to house refugees. Samos is the first warehouse to open in mid-September. It cost 48 million euros. And it is an EU pilot project that is divided into two parts. In the front part live people who are still in the asylum process. In the back there is a closed detention center, a so-called “Prokeka”, in which refugees with negative asylum decisions wait for their deportation. All accommodation should be ready by next year.
In coordination with journalists from FragDenStaat, the ZDF Magazin Royale and the French magazine Médiapart, Ippen Investigativ has accompanied the construction of the camp over the past few months.
We were there to speak to politicians from the Greek government, aid organizations and refugees who were resettled in the new camps.
New: internal documents for planning the refugee camp
We have evaluated internal documents about the planning process of the warehouse, which we received from European authorities such as DG Home, FRA and EASO via the Freedom of Information Act.
The research shows that the EU and the Greek Ministry of Migration implemented structures in the camp that their own human rights agency had warned against.
When the Moria camp burned down on the Greek island of Lesbos at the beginning of September last year, pressure increased on the EU to improve the situation of the refugees.
The Moria camp was designed for 2,800 people, but at that time around 13,000 refugees lived in tents that could not withstand wind, rain or cold.
There was no adequate medical care or safe retreat, the sanitary facilities were filthy, and most of the tents were not connected to the power grid.
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The notorious Moria camp: Before the fire in 2020, there was insufficient medical care here, and most of the tents were not connected to the electricity grid.
© Franziska Grillmeyer
"No second Morias" should be allowed, said EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson two weeks after the fire in front of the EU Parliament in Brussels.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of the need to show together that “Europe manages migration humanely and effectively”.
Task force should enforce EU standards for refugee camps
Under the leadership of the German EU official Beate Gminder, the EU Commission set up a task force for migration management in September 2020, which now includes eight employees.
When planning the new warehouses, she should ensure that EU standards are adhered to: The warehouses should be weatherproof, safe, sustainable and environmentally friendly.
What that means exactly remained vague.
When asked, the Commission replied that the camps should be “dignified”, with a separate area for vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities, unaccompanied minors, families with children or single women.
The corresponding EU directive states that refugees are allowed to move freely in the host country or at least in an assigned area.
The design of such bearings is hardly defined.
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Refugees live in containers in the new camp on Samos.
© Fayad Mulla
How much the new camps would resemble large detention camps was a conflict between the EU and the Greek government from the start.
“We don't lock people up just because they're migrants.
So you have the opportunity to go and come whenever you want, ”said EU Interior Minister Ylva Johansson at a joint press conference with Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis on the island of Lesbos in March 2021.
Our on-site research shows that these announcements were not fulfilled.
New warehouse "far from the urban areas"
With the construction of the new camps, the Greek government apparently had one main goal: to keep the refugees out of sight of the population. This is what public statements by the Greek Minister of Migration suggest. In his opening speech for the new camp, Notis Mitarakis said in mid-September: “We have kept our promise to the people on the islands. We have created a new, modern and secure closed-controlled warehouse (...), far from the urban areas. "
Journalists, independent human rights monitors and lawyers can only enter the new camps with permission and accompanied by the Greek authorities.
This makes it difficult to document what is really going on in the camps.
For the opening ceremony, the press got access to the warehouse on Samos on September 18, 2021.
A reporter from Ippen Investigative was there two days before Wali, his daughter and the other 300 people were brought to the camp.
It's a hot morning.
The area is located in the hinterland of the island, a 15-minute drive from the port and the city.
It would take well over an hour to walk this distance.
In addition to a hill, the container village extends over 154 hectares in a depression.
Olive tree fields and meadows separate it from the rest of the island.
Laminate flooring, air conditioning, WiFi - but under surveillance 24/7
At first glance, it is a clear improvement on the burned down camp Moria, which was on the neighboring island of Lesvos.
There, throw tents - supported with bamboo sticks and boards - had to hold up over the winter.
Now there are 25 square meter containers in which four people can sleep.
The floor is covered with laminate and the air conditioning cools the air to 23 degrees.
There is even WiFi.
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At first glance, a clear improvement on the camp in Moria: the new refugee accommodation on Samos.
© Franziska Grillmeier
But there is also the downside: Police cars patrol all around the camp, uniformed security officers inside. The area is littered with loudspeakers, surveillance cameras and motion detectors. In the past there was hardly anyone who took care of their concerns, but the refugees are now fenced in and under constant surveillance by the Greek police, a private security company and EU agencies. On request, the EU Commission writes that the fence around the camp is there to protect the refugees - and not to lock them up.
Faces and movements are recorded by cameras.
The recordings are shown in a specially set up control room in the Ministry of Migration in Athens.
In addition to drones, which also circle over the warehouse on the day of the transfer, software is to be used that analyzes movements with artificial intelligence.
It should help avoid spontaneous gatherings.
All of this is part of Greece's new migration strategy, which includes the “Centaur” project, a “safety management system” for the “protection of human life and property” that is being used here as a pilot project.
EU pays surveillance of refugees from Covid-19 fund
Our research shows that this and two other surveillance systems for refugees are financed by the EU fund "Recovery and Resilience Facility" - which was actually intended to stimulate the economy in the member states after Covid-19 in a sustainable and digital way. Among other things, Greece applied for this fund with its monitoring systems. 37 million of the total are to be used for this. The Commission has already paid the first deposit. On request, the EU Commission writes that the projects also finance jobs for refugees and contribute to the digital transformation. The monitoring system is in line with data protection and human rights, writes the commission.
The Greek migration minister, Notis Mitarakis, stands in a suit and a blue tie next to two security officers who are taking a selfie at the chain-link fence.
“We're trying to convince people to enjoy it here,” Mitarakis says to a group of journalists.
There is medical care and cultural offers such as playgrounds and sports fields within the camp.
So the refugees don't have to leave it in the first place.
If you come to the camp late in the evening, you have to sleep outside
And who is late? Asks a reporter.
"He will be punished like anyone who breaks the house rules," says Mitarakis.
“Then you can't get out of the camp for five to ten days.” When asked by the Greek Ministry of Migration, it was confirmed that residents who came too late were no longer allowed to enter the camp for the night.
Internal documents available to Ippen Investigativ show that the Task Force Migration Management, Greece and other EU agencies and international organizations met monthly to design the new camps - virtually, but also on site.
Despite the close coordination, those responsible seem to have ignored a report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights FRA.
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Fenced in with NATO wire, the new accommodation on Samos looks like a detention camp.
© Franziska Grillmeier
In February 2021, the Human Rights Agency wrote in a report that a refugee camp should "not look like a prison".
In addition, barbed wire “and prison-like fencing” should be avoided “in order to avoid the risk of retraumatisation of people who have experienced violence and persecution as much as possible.” For this reason, the staff should not wear uniforms.
Children in particular should not be exposed to this.
People shouldn't live “apart” from the rest of the population.
And they should be able to move freely outside and inside the warehouse.
The EU apparently ignored reports from its own human rights agency
Everything that a camp should not be, according to the human rights agency FRA, now applies to the new camp on Samos.
Barbed wire fenced in the camp, drones fly over the premises as the refugees are being transferred, cameras film the refugees at any time of the day or night, uniformed police officers monitor what is happening and the options for leaving the camp are limited.
The Commission fully funded the construction - despite warnings from its own human rights agency.
But not only that: They also made the warehouse their pilot project - and welcomed the "increased security measures".
Germany also supported Greece financially and with expertise in the construction of the warehouses.
Two employees from the Technical Relief Organization, the federal voluntary organization, were sent to Greece in September 2020 to provide expertise to support the construction there.
Doctors Without Borders: "Europe is breaking these people"
Criticism of the prison-like conditions comes from the aid organization Doctors Without Borders, among others, which refuses to work in the new camp. "The opening of the new camp changes the collective identity of the refugees, their self-esteem and their dignity," says Eva Papaioannou, psychologist at Doctors Without Borders. “Europe is breaking these people.” Months before, patients had been afraid of being locked up in the new camp. For people who have endured torture, the strictly controlled camp is not just a deprivation of liberty. There is also the risk that traumatic experiences will break out again.
The so-called “Prokeka” detention center in the back of the camp is particularly controversial. Refugees who have received a negative asylum decision are locked up there - until they are deported. Up to 960 people can be detained in this deportation prison for up to 18 months and are not allowed to leave the premises. The Council of Europe's Anti-Torture Committee (CPT) condemned the conditions in custody several times in recent years. The conditions of detention would amount to inhuman and degrading treatment.
The lawyer Dimitris Choulis has been representing asylum seekers on the island of Samos for two years.
"People can be held here for 18 months without knowing whether they can be returned," says Choulis.
"We can hardly control what happens in detention because access is becoming more and more restrictive."
Refugees are often in custody for months
With an asylum application that has been rejected twice, the Greek authorities can return asylum seekers either to Turkey or to their country of origin.
But Turkey has not taken anyone back since March 2020.
Deportations to their home countries are also making slow progress.
People who are arrested with a negative asylum decision are therefore often stuck in custody for months without knowing what to do with them.
After years of congestion, the number of asylum seekers on the islands fell: from a total of almost 40,000 in April 2020 to only around 4,500. Most of them were brought to the mainland. Partly still in the ongoing asylum procedure. Tens of thousands of refugees live in the greater Athens area alone, often in precarious circumstances. As soon as the asylum is recognized, the people in Greece no longer receive any financial support. Nevertheless, they have to leave camps and accommodations immediately. Many end up on the streets in Athens or Thessaloniki, pitch a tent again in one of the mainland camps or stay with friends and relatives in often precarious conditions.
Wali also feels abandoned by the Greek authorities.
“Instead of them helping us, we always have to listen to their will,” writes Wali.
One week after moving into the new warehouse, Wali informs us via WhatsApp that the equipment there is far better than before.
But his daughter does not understand the situation.
When she leaves the camp to go to the port city, ask her why she is being checked at the entrance to the camp.
That usually only
happens
in prisons, she says. *
Ippen The research team at IPPEN.MEDIA is investigative.
This research was supported by a grant from Journalismfund.eu and the collaboration of the Disinfaux Collective.
Have you experienced grievances yourself or have you received information or documents on abuse of power that might interest our research team? Contact recherche@ippen-investigativ.de in confidence.