Children found malnourished in Greek migrant camp: MSF

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Monday it had identified the first cases of malnourished children in a migrant camp on the Greek island of Samos, which has been criticised by rights groups for dangerous living conditions.

MSF doctors have diagnosed six children from Syria and Afghanistan aged between six months and six years with acute malnutrition needing immediate help, it said.

While it could not say if their malnutrition was due to living in the camp, conditions there — including insufficient food and medical care — endangered their health, MSF said.

“No child should suffer from malnutrition due to systemic neglect,” said Christina Psarra, director-general of MSF Greece, calling for immediate action, adding about a quarter of the camp's residents were children.

The Greek migration ministry said the cases were isolated.

“Under no circumstances is there generalised malnutrition due to living conditions,” the ministry said, adding asylum seekers were provided with three meals a day.

On the forefront of Europe's 2015-2016 migration crisis, Greece saw a surge in arrivals in 2024, according to UN data. This year, nearly a third of arrivals to southern Europe from the Middle East and Africa were to Greece.

The EU-funded Samos camp, a sprawling, heavily-surveilled facility surrounded by barbed wire, was opened by the government in 2021 to replace the former camp of Vathy — once an overcrowded, rat-infested tent city of 7,000 people.

The six malnourished children arrived this year, MSF said.

Rights group Amnesty International has called conditions at Samos “inhumane and degrading” during periods of overcrowding, with water shortages and a lack of other basic services.

In December, a UN human rights expert accused Greece of failing to identify victims of sex trafficking in the camp.

MSF called on Greece and the EU to ensure adequate paediatric care and nutritional support in Samos and to restore financial support to asylum seekers suspended last June.

Reuters