Lack of Medical Staff and Limited Access to Healthcare The Medical and Psychosocial Unit of the RIC (staffed by EODY, National Organization for Public Health), based in the Samos CCAC, has 4 nurses, 2 social workers, 1 psychologist, 4 interpreters and 1 supervisor. 20 There is no doctor on staff. Currently, a military doctor visits the facility for a few hours regularly but not during the weekends or even every weekday. EODY can refer cases to Samos General Hospital for further examination, preparing every Friday a list of appointments in consultation with the hospital. However, EODY only operates between 8:00-16:00; the remaining 16 hours per day, there is no one to provide medical first aid and assess health risks. Unskilled and untrained security and police personnel are responsible for identifying urgent medical cases and it is left to their discretion if someone should be transferred to the hospital or not. In parallel, residents are not able to independently visit the Emergency department of the hospital as local Greeks do, as they do not enjoy freedom of movement. Finally, the hospital is 9 km away, the bus is unaffordable21 and only available during the limited hours. There is just one ambulance serving the whole island of more than 30,000 people. It is only a matter of time before asylum seekers under the care and protection of the RIC will need urgent medical care and will suffer great health risks due to the lack of medical infrastructure. GCR and Oxfam are very concerned about the minors on Samos island as the Medical Unit stated their inability to examine alleged minors and assess their age (age assessment procedure), because the unit lacks the required specialized medical staff.22 As a result, cases of alleged minors have to be referred directly to Samos General Hospital, which is contrary to a child-friendly and integrated approach. Finally, the General Hospital of Samos is under-staffed, as is the case with all hospitals on the Greek islands.23 Not all needed specializations are available and it lacks specialized medical equipment. For these well-known reasons, all vulnerable people like those with severe physical or mental health issues, pregnant women, and elderly people should be promptly transferred to proper and special accommodation facilities on the mainland, where they can have access to well-resourced hospitals and required medical treatment. Isolated Camps, Local Objections, and the Policy of Deterrence Following the opening of the first CCAC on Samos island, new CCAC’s on Kos and Leros islands were officially inaugurated on November 27 th 2021. They have a capacity of 1540 and 1780 residents respectively but currently only host 280 and 24 residents.24 Similar closed and controlled camps are due to be built on Chios and Lesbos next. The CCACs on all the islands are located in remote, isolated areas that exclude any possibility for refugees’ social integration and infringe on their ability to access services which contradicts the EU’s own integration policy25. The new CCAC in Kos is built in the same spot as the old facility, in a remote area, 15 km outside of the city.26 Since January 2020, everyone arriving on Kos has been detained automatically upon arrival.27 Despite this automatic detention being illegal under Greek, EU and other international human rights law, the situation on Kos has been relatively under reported, with asylum seekers abandoned there, invisible and feeling like “ghosts”.28 Kos facility has been functioning as a de facto closed 5 “There are some days that the food is really bad; you can get sick from the bad quality. At night, we have to beg for just some bread. I have a medical problem with my eyes. There is no doctor here to examine me.” -R. Young Somali Man