openly doubted the credibility of refugees and migrants who arrive to Samos Island: “many say they come from countries at war but we don’t see injuries and they don’t ask for asylum.”86 Fourteen-year-old Hussein S., an unaccompanied boy from Iraq whose case is mentioned above, entered Greece through Samos Island. He was traumatized to such an extent that he had harmed himself and suffered from nightmares. He clung to a doll throughout the interview. His mental state seemed to be the result of having witnessed family members killed and his father abducted and murdered, before insurgents started to target him. He arrived to Samos in March 2008, was registered as an adult based on his own declaration and detained for 27 days jointly with adults, before being put outside the Samos detention center with a deportation order but no assistance.87 At the time of the interview, this boy was living with an unrelated Iraqi man who spoke so incoherently that Human Rights Watch had to break off the interview with him. Although the Samos detention center is a brand-new facility equipped with a doctor’s office and a social worker, no interpreter is permanently present in the center, which seriously undermines any effort to identify vulnerable individuals. The failure to correctly identify children who have suffered from violence and torture or those who have been traumatized results in a violation of their entitlement to special assistance and exposes them to serious harm. If these children file an asylum application, they may be less able to speak coherently and convincingly about the reasons for and events that led to their displacement. They may contradict themselves and their stories might be inconsistent due to mental stress. In the worst case, their claims can be deemed unfounded or not credible. Hussein S. had his asylum interview without any prior examination by a psychologist. after September 2008. Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Ekavi Papadimitriou, Medical Center for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims, September 1, 2008. 86 Human Rights Watch interview with Ioannis Kotsampasi, chief of police, Samos, May 30, 2008. 87 Human Rights Watch interview with Hussein S., Samos, May 30, 2008. 29 Human Rights Watch December 2008