"The doctor didn’t allow me to talk about my knee.”

[Before their forced stay in the Samos CCAC, the respondent was violently apprehended after their arrival on the island. Some people in his group were reportedly pushed back. The testimony of that incident can be found here]

The respondent is a man aged 18-25 years old from Gambia. He reports to have arrived on the island of Samos between January and July 2023 with a group of 43 to 45 people. He reports that he experienced an attempted pushback from Samos. At the time of arrival, the respondent was still a minor. The group consisted of mostly Sierra Leoneans, two people from Ghana, a few people from Haiti and him as the only Gambian. There were both men and women, two of the latter pregnant, and at least two children in the group. 

The respondent reports that, when he arrived, it was early in the morning. The group tried to hide in the forest after their arrival. After being chased and hit by what the respondent identified as masked police officers, they were taken to the Samos CCAC.  

“I was feeling pain. I couldn’t walk properly. That’s when I realised that I had pain. We are not seeing nothing. I don’t remember how we got to the camp.”

The policemen asked the group’s name and age, and in a group of five men they took the respondent into a container and searched them to see “whether we had something”. “They asked us to remove our jackets, trousers, and to put anything outside.” The group had to remove all their clothes including their underwear. Reportedly, the policemen did not touch the newly arrived. The respondent reports to not know whether it was the same policemen as in the bush. The respondent described that he man whose wife was pushed back was searched at the same time as him, and one policeman said to the man “You are very lucky”. 

After the search, “because it was night-time”, the group was reportedly taken to the quarantine section of the camp. The respondent reports that the group spent one night in the quarantine section, and that during the quarantine he was given a paper that said that he should seek medical attention in a hospital. In the morning the police registered them, and the respondent was taken to the minors' section the next day. 

The respondent reports that after having arrived in the minors' section, he went to the medical actors of the camp [EODY] and asked to see a doctor for his knee, but he was repeatedly told “that I can’t see a doctor” and to come back another day. One time a male EODY staff member checked his hand and asked him how he is doing, and the respondent tried to talk to him about his knee, but “he didn’t allow me to talk about my knee.” Reportedly, the man and other EODY employees did not let the respondent explain his pain in his knee, and did not check it. The respondent reports that only after he left the minors' section (he reportedly resided there for nearly one month), he got medical attention by a doctor for his knee. 

The respondent reports that after having left the minors' section, it was the doctors of the NGO Doctors without Borders (MSF) who checked his knee, not EODY, because “in the camp, when you go there, the woman sometimes listens to you, sometimes not.”

The respondent describes that during his time in the minors' section, the residents sometimes were given food that they did not eat because of the bad quality, and sometimes he and other people managed to cook for themselves: “sometimes we have the opportunity to have some food, the one we want.” The respondent reportedly tried to go “down” to the main section of the camp regularly but sometimes was not let through by the security guards. The respondent reports that this made him feel bad.