Greece

Since the EU-Turkey deal in March 2016, migrants and refugees previously in transit through the Greek islands have been trapped there for an indeterminate time in overcrowded, unsafe, and unhygienic conditions, without access to basic services, adequate shelter, or information on their legal status.

Our teams in Lesbos and Samos have reported overwhelming numbers of people suffering from serious mental health conditions while being contained on the islands. We have made repeated calls on the European Union to completely change its approach to migration, which is causing avoidable harm to the health and wellbeing of asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants.

Throughout 2020, MSF continued to denounce the policies that have trapped thousands of people in terrible conditions on Greek islands. By March, more than 20,000 men, women, and children were held in undignified conditions in Moria, a reception center on Lesbos island with an official capacity of 3,000. COVID-19 lockdown measures further restricted their capacity to move, buy food, and access health care or legal assistance.

MSF runs a clinic outside Moria to provide sexual and reproductive health care, general health care, and mental health support for children. In June 2020, we opened an emergency COVID-19 isolation center, which the local authorities forced us to close soon after. On the night of September 7, 2020, Moria was completely destroyed by several fires and more than 12,000 people were displaced. We rapidly sent mobile clinics and opened an additional clinic to respond to urgent needs. People were moved to a new camp where, by the end of the year, 7,000 people were still living in tents.