47
infection or complication have access to addi-
that they were only given one single-use mask
tional monitoring and treatment.194
to use for the duration of quarantine, with no
Application
hand sanitizer provided. They also emphasized
Many participants noted that few measures
were being implemented to prevent against
that mask wearing was not enforced in the
quarantine.
COVID-19 in the quarantines. There is often no
Ahmed, who was quarantined in a small room
further antigen test conducted on Chios, until
on Chios in fall 2021, experienced a shocking
the very last day of quarantine, prior to release.
and unscientific COVID-prevention measure:
Furthermore, some reported that the quarantine facility was incompatible with infectionprevention due to an inability to socially distance in the quarantine and an insufficient provision of masks and hygiene items.
Depending on the number of arrivals at any
given time, the quarantines have reached severe
overcrowding, preventing any possibility of
when one person in his room tested positive for
COVID-19 and was taken to isolation, he and the
other four people in the room “were not allowed
to speak [for four days] ...” Only when Ahmed and
his roommates tested negative four days later
were they permitted to speak again. In another
incident, from Chios, Ali, who was quarantined
in winter 2022, stated that his group was not allowed to speak during their first day until they
physical distancing. Recurrent interviews on
were tested. Considering neither Ahmed nor Ali
Chios confirmed that the eight upstairs rooms
were provided masks until after the tests and
were crowded with 4-9 people in each room,
that Coronavirus is an airborne virus, this man-
with beds within 1 meter of each other. When
dated silence appears both cruel and unusual.
the auditorium-like room is used, all asylum
seekers sleep side-by-side on the ground. 195
Omer, quarantined in Chios in winter 2021, was
quarantined in a small room with seven other
people. He reported that the 34 people in the facility shared one bathroom.
Despite frequent overcrowding, masks–the
most basic of preventative health measures–
were not always provided to those placed in
quarantine. Omer, quarantined on Chios in
winter 2021, confirmed that no masks were
made available to him and the seven others in
his quarantine room. Others quarantined in
winter 2022 remember using masks but stated
Ibid.
Although this seems to have changed in March 2022 when a local NGO donated beds to increase the capacity to 160 by donating 40 additional beds.
194
195
‘Quarantine of Asylum Seeker’ – A legal classification of the quarantine practice on Chios