with detainees at the new Samos facility, the detainees were not kept as far apart from us as at Fylakio-Kyprinou nor did they make the same desperate and negative sign language as they did at our visit to the Fylakio-Kyprinou facility. The relatively good conditions in the Samos facility were largely confirmed (with the exception of accounts of abuse by facility staff) in interviews with former detainees.177 Human Rights Watch interviewed a 14-year-old unaccompanied Afghan boy who said that although unaccompanied children were mixed with adults, (a serious problem) conditions on the whole were good: The camp was new. Children with women were in one room. I was in another room together with the adults. I stayed there for two weeks. Each person had a blanket, pillows, and everything and we got three meals a day. The food was varied and I was happy with it.178 Detainees held in the old Samos facility described it quite differently.179 The old Samos facility was notorious, described by a European Parliament delegation in July 2007 as “squalid, deplorable and inhuman.”180 A 30-year-old Iraqi from Baghdad described the old Samos facility: “It was a very dirty place. I was held there for 15 days. It had a very dirty toilet. There was no hot water. You couldn’t bathe. Eighty of us were closed in a very small dirty room. We were afraid of the guards. They would beat us.”181 A 21-year-old Iraqi Kurd from Kirkuk who has been detained in Greece, Turkey, and northern Iraq often drew comparisons in detention standards among the three countries. Of the old Samos facility, he said: The jails in Turkey were cleaner than the one in Samos. There were about 400 people jammed into Samos. They called it a “camp,” but it was really a jail. There were no separate rooms, just many people in a big hall. 177 Other accounts about the new facility at Samos consistent with those quoted here include brief, not confidential conversations with detainees, guards, and staff during the Human Rights Watch visit to Samos on May 30, 2008 , as well as lengthy, private interviews with B-29, B-30, B-33, and S-123. 178 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, S-109), Athens, May 27, 2008. 179 In addition to the interviews quoted here, Human Rights Watch interviewed others who had been held at the old Samos detention facility who described it similarly. These include interviews B-1, B-2, B-7, B-8, B-9, B-23, B-38, and B-43. 180 Report from the LIBE Committee Delegation Visit to Greece, p. 5. 181 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-2), Athens, May 23, 2008. Stuck in a Revolving Door 74