Medical charity reports malnourished cases in Greek migrant camp

ATHENS

A medical charity working in Greece has diagnosed six young children living in a migrant facility on the eastern Aegean island of Samos as suffering from malnutrition, the first time its doctors have made such a diagnosis since the facility opened in 2021.

The Greek section of Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym MSF, said that its staff had diagnosed the children, who are aged between 6 months and 6 years old, with moderate to severe acute malnutrition and in need of immediate medical intervention.

“Children make up about 25 percent of the [camp’s] population, yet pediatric care remains insufficient, not only within the center but on the entire island of Samos,” MSF Greece’s Director General Christina Psarra said in a news release.

The six children, who hailed from Afghanistan and Syria, all arrived in the camp with their families within the last two to three months, Psarra said.

However, “definitely the conditions in the camp have made things more difficult and have had an aggravating effect,” she said.

Psarra said that while meals were provided for the camp’s residents, the diet “is not nutritious for children of this age.”

The situation was exacerbated by the severance nine months ago of a stipend provided to asylum seekers in Greece, which had allowed them to purchase fresh food and other basic necessities, she added.

Officially designated as a “closed controlled access center,” the European Union-funded migrant camp in Samos, built on a hillside about 8 kilometers from the island’s main port of Vathy, was opened in 2021 to replace a massively overcrowded camp that had developed on the town’s fringes.

The camp, which is guarded by police and private security, has a capacity of 3,664 people and as of April 7, it was housing 3,176 people.