We’re concerned about conditions for refugees and migrants in camps on Greece’s Aegean Islands, so we’re going to Lesvos and Samos in April. We want to witness the situation firsthand and see how we can help.
In 2024, Greece saw the highest number of arrivals in the past five years: Over 54,000 people reached the country. Most of them arrived by boat from Turkey, and the largest spike in arrivals occurred on Samos. The island’s displacement camp has a capacity for 3,000 people, but in recent months the number has gone as high as 4,800, making a bad situation even worse.
To try to understand what’s going on, Humanity Now has been in touch with Dalia Impiglia of Samos Volunteers, the primary grassroots aid organization on the island. Dalia describes the camp as “a series of containers, barbed wire, 24/7 surveillance and extreme security, making residents feel ‘in prison’. The running water is available only periodically, often cold; the sanitation facilities are considered to be filthy and in deplorable conditions; vulnerable individuals are not identified and given appropriate accommodation.”
To demonstrate how these conditions might affect individuals living there, Samos Volunteers has been compiling artwork by residents and also asking them to describe daily life. As one father put it, “(The) water in the bathroom is dirty and discontinuous… my kids got lice in the hair and cockroaches move on them while they sleep. Kids wake up at night and find the cockroaches walking on them and it is traumatic.”
Samos Volunteers operates two community centers on the island, one near the camp and the other in the main town of Vathy. These centers offer informal education, psychosocial support, a safe space for women, and support for refugees from the LGBTQ+ community. They also organize sports tournaments, arts and crafts activities, and music sessions. Their “free shop” distributes a set of clothing and new undergarments for each camp resident each season. And, perhaps as much as anything, the location of these centers, outside of the camp, gives residents a respite from the challenges of daily life there.
The work of Samos Volunteers and our other Aegean Island partners represents the kinds of practical, effective initiatives that can really make a difference. We’re excited to travel there, see their programs in action, and talk with them about using our funding to strengthen their efforts.
Your donations will, of course, help us do even more.
