"Police were never nice to me"

The respondent is a man aged 18-25 from Sierra Leone who arrived on the island of Samos between July and December 2022. The respondent reported to have received emergency medical support from MSF before being taken to the Samos CCAC together with 40 other newly arrived people at 5pm. Reportedly, before entering the bus to the camp, the police took everyone’s phones. The group reportedly got the phones back the next day. 

All the new arrivals were brought together except for one woman who stayed hidden in the forest with the group being taken  to the quarantine section of the camp the same evening. The respondent reported the "police were never nice to me": While being brought to quarantine, the police reportedly said things like 'Ela, move this way, malaka" [‘Ela’ = Greek for ‘come’, ‘malaka’ = greek for ‘asshole’ or similar insult]. 

Upon arrival to the quarantine section, the group was reportedly told to go in the containers and put their belongings  inside. Women and men were brought into different containers in the quarantine zone. Around two or three hours later the same day, police reportedly called the group out of the containers saying "Come outside, stand at the wall". Reportedly there were five or six police officers present, all male and white-skinned. The respondent recalls they were young, maybe 20 to 25 years old, and with one being around 30/35. They had weapons, guns on their hip, which they never took out, but one was putting his hand on his gun, playing with it so the respondent reported being scared of being shot. 

The respondent described how the police screamed loudly at them "as if we were military recruits". The respondent reported they were called outside again by the police in the evening. Reportedly the police woke them up at 1 am, called them out again, told them to stand at the wall, and then watched the group. The respondent reported that “I didn't know if they were angry or annoyed, the police called us out for nothing”. Reportedly the police said things like “Don’t speak, don’t speak, ela ela, stand at the wall”. The group was told that in the morning they will have to pack their things and go down to the first reception [the registration of new arrivals in the Samos CCAC is performed by the Reception and Identification Service, RIS, whose office in the CCAC many call ‘first reception’]  and had to stand against the wall for around 3 minutes. The respondent reports that the police were so aggressive that some of the group were panicking. The respondent reports that at that time he was scared to be pushed back to Turkey because of the aggressive nature of the police. The policemen were reportedly shouting, saying all sorts of things in Greek and sometimes in English. The only words the respondent understood were “shut up” “keep quiet” [every time they were called out this happened]. 

After having spent the night in the quarantine section of the CCAC, at around 7 am the next morning the group was called to come outside again and to go down to the first reception. The respondent reported that “before, I wasn’t understanding anything that was happening, maybe they would push us back, maybe we would be allowed to stay. The kindness of the [private CCAC] security people reassured us and gave us courage. That’s when we understood we could stay.”

At the first reception, reportedly the police took photos of the group and provided them with police notes (preliminary identification documents). The people the respondent was with reportedly consisted of several men, among them three minors aged approx. 15, 16 and 17. The respondent reported to have met the minors before in Basmane [name of an area  in Izmir] Turkey, which is why he knows they are minors. These children had been de facto detained alongside the adults in the quarantine zones of the CCAC. 

Reportedly, the group was standing in front of a container, until they were split and called into the container to be searched three by three. Inside, the police took their bags and emptied everything on the floor, and looked at it. Reportedly, the respondent's group was "searched like criminals": The group was told to take off all their clothes and to squat. The respondent described that the police told everyone to take off their clothes until they were naked, and to kneel on the floor. Then the police searched everyone's bodies and looked at them for a few seconds.

The respondent reported that when he was asked to take off even his boxers, “that's when we knew we were in for something difficult”.  The respondent described that with him in the container, there was one minor from the age of 15 approximately. 

- "That was the first moment when I knew that I have arrived in a prison."

The respondent described that during the procedure he didn’t feel good at all. While describing the events, the respondent reported that “when I remember all of this, it’s just funny to me, because I don’t think this should happen, it was really bad”. He reports that when he was still in Turkey, some of their friends were already in Samos and they had told him that Samos is not good, it is like a prison. When they were asked to take off their clothes and squat, “that’s when I knew they were right.”

Reportedly, after having completed the search and having left the room, he talked to the other two minors and learned they had undergone the same procedure.

- "I understood that when we were entering the camp, they have to search us, that's good. But the way they are doing it is not correct at all, it is really bad." 

The respondent reported that afterwards they left the container, were given food and had a quick interview where they were asked about why they left their country of origin. Reportedly, they then were given their phones back by the police. The respondent's phone was locked when he got it back, but his friend's phone that had as well been locked with a password reportedly was unlocked when he got it back from the police.

Reportedly, then the respondent was transferred into the CCAC, where he was given some papers in English and Greek to sign and told that only when he would be given the asylum seekers' ID card, he would be allowed to leave the camp. Reportedly he had to wait 26 or 27 days until he was given his asylum seekers' ID card, subjecting him to stay de facto detained in the CCAC for this period. 

The respondent described the structures of the CCAC as follows: “I would say I live in a prison: when you want to go out you have to go through a security check. When you want to go back in, you go through the x-ray machine, and put your bag in a machine to be checked, and you have to take your shoes off to be searched.” Reportedly the respondent asked the police at the gate what the use of having an x-ray machine is if you still have to take your shoes off, and the security people answered that this was the rules. The respondent describes it as being “searched like criminals” when entering the camp. Reportedly he is also being body searched whenever he wants to go to the first reception in the CCAC, and when he and other people play football and the ball goes over the fence between the sections, to get it back they need to go through security as well. 

The respondent also describes the barbed wires and security guards to be very stressful for him. “It’s a prison because if we were in a camp we would have rights to be treated properly, we don’t think the security is necessary”. The respondent describes that some people in the CCAC have “weak minds” and maybe the CCAC reminds some of them of their time in prison in Basmane in Turkey. “After how they treated us when we first arrived, we had a mindset of being in a prison, but because we check the internet and see organisations that say we shouldn’t be treated this way, some of us are aware of our rights.”

The respondent reported that also the food makes him feel like in a prison, “plain rice and steamed chicken that expired eight months ago. The food is very bad, and so is the water”. Reportedly the respondent and some other people tried to meet the director of the camp to complain but they were not allowed to. They reportedly met someone who they think was from the camp’s PR team who said they would try to do something about the food, but this was three months ago and nothing has changed.

The respondent reported that he lives in a container with three other people. His container reportedly contains an AC and heating, a small fridge, a cupboard, an electric cooker, and a toilet. Reportedly the residents clean the containers themselves. They were given tools to clean (brooms, a mop, bucket to put water in), but no cleaning products like sprays.

- "For the facilities, they are okay. It is the food and the way they treat people which is bad".

The respondent describes suffering from kidney stones which is very painful for him. The respondent describes seeking medical attention from the medical actor in the Samos camp as follows: "When I go there on Friday, he tells me to come back on Monday''. Reportedly the respondent has been referred to the public hospital where the doctors have been trying to detect his medical issue for over four months now, and that the doctors said it is not kidney stones but bacteria. 

“There are a lot of people in the camp who are really sick, and because the system is down nothing is happening. Some people can barely move, and they are getting no medical treatment.”

The respondent reported that since he arrived in Samos camp, he is unable to sleep. Reportedly he has stopped taking painkillers he was given because they made him feel uncomfortable, but now the pain he is feeling stops him from sleeping well. He describes that "the conditions in the camp make it harder as well", reportedly the delay of his medical treatment and the bad quality of the food the camp residents are given. The respondent describes that he tried to use the cash assistance he gets for food, but that it is not always enough to afford food, which is "really stressful" for him.