is €2.50 per day for a single person and for a four-member-family €1.75 per
person.[91] Those who cannot afford the bus are left with the only option of
walking to the town which takes around 2 hours, with the return trip back to the
CCAC being steeply uphill. This makes it much harder for elderly people, as well
as those with disabilities or families to come to town and use the services
provided by NGOs in Vathy. This includes legal assistance and essential
services. People are therefore further isolated and further confined within the
CCAC.
Additionally, there are plans to create a new system for accessing the Wi-Fi.[92]
People will be required to use their ID card number to access the Wi-Fi, cutting
off all residents without an ID from accessing the CCAC internet. As a result,
they will not have a possibility to communicate with their friends and family and
their ability to access legal information will be limited. This will have a severe
impact on people's well-being and exacerbate the CCAC's social isolation.
Undignified living conditions
Additional factors contribute to the undignified living conditions in the CCAC and
have a severe impact on the mental health of the residents. As I Have Rights
reported with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to the EU Ombudsman, in
the "CCAC’s first year of operation, residents have had their access to water severely
limited or completely cut off for two extended periods", this includes at the time of
writing where the water is cut for 9 hours a day.[93] Residents report being plagued
by bed bugs and cockroaches in their containers.[94] Beneficiaries of I Have Rights
have reported that, as the cockroach infestation has become so severe, people are
suffering from cockroaches biting them at night, which has impacted their ability to
sleep, in turn affecting people’s mental and physical health.
Crucially, the health care provided in the CCAC is insufficient. There is no permanent
CCAC doctor and one psychologist for the more than 1,000 residents. Gaps in
primary medical provisions were filled by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) who
mounted an emergency medical response with a mobile clinic three days a
_____
[91] GCR and Oxfam. 2022. Lesbos Bulletin Update on Lesbos and the Aegean Islands, by the Greek
Council for Refugees & Oxfam. Available here.
[92] I Have Rights. 2022. Call to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. Available here.
[93] International Rescue Committee and I Have Rights. 2023. Contribution to the European
Ombudsman’s strategic inquiry into how the European Commission ensures respect for
fundamental rights in EU-funded migration management facilities in Greece. Available here.
[94] CCAC resident. 2022. AYS Special from Greece: The Eye —An asylum-seeker’s account on
pushbacks and life in Samos Refugee Camp. Available here.
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