typically large and decrepit buildings where spots to sleep on the floor are rented out by private landlords for three to five Euros per night. Children who stayed in such accommodation told Human Rights Watch about contracting skin diseases and experiencing very poor hygiene. Musa M., who was 16 years old at the time he arrived in Greece, stayed for almost a week in such a “hotel”: “The hotel was very dirty. We were seven or eight persons in one room. It was about 15 m2. I slept on the floor. It was difficult for me there. It was very dirty. We borrowed some money from friends and ate outside. I paid three Euros per night.”232 Up to 250 unaccompanied children reside in squalid conditions in a slum settlement in Patras. The NGO Médecins sans Frontières started a medical assistance program there in mid-May 2008. According to the organization, the most common pathologies among camp residents are skin diseases (scabies and skin infections), followed by respiratory tract infections and diarrhea.233 Similarly, the NGO Doctors of the World noticed an increase in skin diseases among migrants in Greece, which they attribute to the squalid and overcrowded living conditions in Athens, especially in informal “hotels.”234 Fifteen-year-old Aktar P. told us he was recruited from Athens and transferred to a plantation to work during the orange harvest (see also chapter VII on child labor). At that time, he did not have permanent accommodation anywhere. After his work was terminated and he had no place to go, he put up a cardboard hut with friends and stayed there for two weeks during the winter: We put up some wooden boards and covered them with plastic. I slept with six to seven other persons. We were jobless and didn’t have to pay for that. There was no work so we moved to this tent because it was for free.… We took pieces of wood from the garbage and put it on 232 Human Rights Watch interview with Musa M., Athens, May 28, 2008; 233 See also chapter V. Médecins sans Frontières also reports that migrants frequently suffer from injuries they incur while attempting to hide in trucks. “Médecins sans Frontières’ work with migrants–undocumented migrants,” Médecins sans Frontières, http://www.msf.gr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1862&Itemid=235 (accessed August 26, 2008). 234 Human Rights Watch interview with Maria Logara, Doctors of the World, Athens, June 4, 2008. 71 Human Rights Watch December 2008