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>Camp on Samos: Detention for children, paid for by Switzerland
-Hundreds of refugee minors are being held on the Greek holiday island under conditions that violate human rights. The camp is funded by the federal government. Now the European Court of Human Rights has intervened.
Samos is popular. It's almost always summer here, with average temperatures of almost 20 degrees Celsius. Nearly 150,000 tourists come every year for the warmth, the beaches, and the pretty towns. British, German, and Swiss tourists, many of them all-inclusive. Direct flights, hotels, and full board are available for just a few hundred francs.
In the east of the Greek island – away from the tourist areas and hidden in a hilly landscape – there is a camp that doesn't quite fit in with the idyllic setting. It's about five kilometers from the nearest town and about ten from the nearest beach. High wire fences seal off the area, and the entrance and exit are guarded around the clock. It's a camp for refugees. Officially called a Closed Controlled Access Center, it includes a safe area for minors who are fleeing alone.
Anwar is one of them. "To be honest," he says, "fifteen days ago I tried to kill myself. I thought it would be better for me."
The 17-year-old is from Egypt and his real name is different. It's Monday, March 3, when he tells Die Republik about his suicide attempt on the phone. He tells how he's living in the camp. Suffering. And doesn't want to live anymore. "My friends saved me at the last moment," he says. He was then taken to the hospital for treatment of his neck wounds, then to a police station, where the officer told him: "If I see you here again, I'll make sure you go to prison for six months."
The police officer's threat fell on deaf ears. After all, Anwar had already been in prison for 78 days at this point. That's what he calls the safe area in the refugee camp. And he says: "I'm not used to being treated like a prisoner."
He, who has long suffered from diabetes, became not only mentally but also physically ill in the "safe zone" of the camp. He suffers from fever, chickenpox, and scabies. Almost all the young people here have scabies, he says, yet no doctor cares for them. Not even him. "After my suicide attempt, I asked for an appointment with a psychologist," Anwar says. "But when she finally came to the camp, she simply said she didn't have an appointment for me. That was the only time the psychologist was there."
The millions of Switzerland
The refugee camp, in operation since 2021, is part of the logic of Europe's future asylum policy. Samos lies on the external border of the European Union, barely two kilometers from the Turkish coast at its narrowest point. As a result, an above-average number of asylum seekers are stranded here. Greek border police intercept them, prevent them from continuing their journey to the European mainland, and bring them to the camp. Initial asylum applications are already being assessed here in fast-track procedures – usually with negative results.These applicants face immediate deportation. This is what Europe's future asylum policy envisages.
The camp on Samos has residential containers with nearly 4,000 spaces, divided into areas for refugee men, women, families, and unaccompanied children and young people. 100 spaces for boys and young men, 100 spaces for girls and young women – the "safe area."
What's special about it: The operation of the safe area is financed by Switzerland. As part of its "second contribution to selected EU member states," it also contributes to facilities for migrants at the EU's external border. Specifically, it is paying just over CHF 4 million for the operation of the safe areas on Samos and three other Greek islands for 16 months.
The federal government is clearly convinced of these "safe areas" and their benefits. "The children arriving on the Greek border islands are in a particularly precarious situation," writes the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs on its website about the Safe Areas. "Many of them have been victims of human trafficking, abuse, exploitation, and violence, making them particularly vulnerable. Therefore, these children require immediate and comprehensive care, protection, and access to a range of basic services." Therefore, each safe area is "staffed by a team of multidisciplinary professionals, including social workers, psychologists, legal advisors, interpreters, and counselors."
But the reality is different.
At least, that's what five young people say who were locked up in the safe area of Samos for weeks and with whom the Republic had a long phone conversation. One of them is Anwar, the other four are
between 15 and 17 years old and, according to their own statements, were in the camp for 112 to 125 days.
Under Greek law, 25 days would be permitted. But even these 25 days are controversial: According to the human rights organization Amnesty International, the European Commission had already criticized the relevant Greek law in January 2023, saying it might contradict EU law. Nevertheless, it remains in force to this day.
25 euros for a bed, 10 euros for Nutella
Tari (who actually has a different name) is one of the four young people. "We're not allowed to leave the camp," he said on February 26 by phone with Die Republik; he'd been in the safe area for 100 days. There's a shortage of everything: food, beds, and doctors. "At the beginning, there were about 600 young people living here," the 17-year-old explains. "There simply weren't enough beds, which is why I had to sleep on the floor for days." When individual young people were then transferred to other camps, they sold their beds. "I paid 25 euros for my bed."
In general, you have to pay for everything in the camp: beds, blankets, and special food. €25 for a bed, €5 for a blanket (which you pay for youths being relocated), €10 for Nutella, €5 for cookies (which go to adults who bring food from other parts of the camp to the safe area). The black market is flourishing.
Like Anwar, Tari also complains about illnesses and the lack of medical care in the camp. He has pimples and blisters all over his body, itches day and night, and can barely sleep. But nobody cares. "In the 100 days he spent in the safe area, I only saw a doctor once." He prescribed medication for scabies. "But I never received the medication."
Finally, the young man from Egypt describes an incident in which a guard violently assaulted him. "I was waiting in line for food," he says. The young men pushed each other until a guard picked him out and took him to a separate room. "There he hit me," says Tari. When he later reported this to the Safe Area officials, they simply ignored it. "Nothing happened."
Violation of human rights
A safe area that's actually a prison. A prison where minors are locked up for weeks at a time. Minors who are left to fend for themselves and without the legal guardians they're entitled to.
The oldest of the minors are 17 years old, the youngest are under 10 years old—still children. This is according to an internal report from the State Secretariat for Migration, which the Republic obtained through a public request.
The "safe area" is repeatedly overcrowded; then, instead of the intended 200 unaccompanied minors (as they are called in official language), more than twice as many children and adolescents are housed there. Due to the miserable hygienic conditions, infectious diseases regularly run rampant. There is a lack of medical care, healthy food, employment programs, and training opportunities are not to be missed.
However, young people report violent attacks, whether by other young people or by guards.
Not all of the statements the five teenagers made to the Republic can be fully verified. However, the photos and videos they sent to the editorial team, which certainly originate from the safe area, confirm most of them. However, for privacy reasons, the Republic has decided to publish only a small portion of them.
Moreover, their accounts largely coincide with those of four other young people who were locked up in the Samos Safe Area for weeks. They also speak of overcrowding, illness and a lack of medical care, violent attacks, and guardians who mostly exist only on paper—and of the fact that the Safe Area is, in reality, a prison.
These four young people, aged between 15 and 17, managed to contact lawyers from the Greek non-governmental organization Human Rights Legal Project from the safe area. On January 23, 2025, the lawyers filed a lawsuit on their behalf with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. They argued that the conditions in the Samos safe area violated the fundamental rights of minors, specifically the right to liberty and security, and the prohibition of torture. Both are enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights.
Shortly afterwards, on February 5, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights issued a remarkable ruling based on the complaint: It issued a "precautionary measure" and called on the Greek government to immediately provide all four plaintiffs with "adequate food, water, clothing and medical assistance", "to guarantee their protection from ill-treatment" and "to ensure their prompt transfer to another accommodation facility for unaccompanied minors".
In other words, the court recognized that the conditions in the Samos refugee camp violate the fundamental rights of minors.
Just two weeks after the European Court of Human Rights, a Greek administrative court ruled on another complaint by a minor from the Samos camp. This ruling is also noteworthy. The court found that the Safe Area was, in fact, a prison. This was demonstrated by the fact that the victim, a 16-year-old from Egypt.
He was locked in the camp for 64 days and was not allowed to leave except for two doctor's visits.
