With its new healthcare programme for people seeking asylum, the Greek government is not managing to provide people with the healthcare they need so desperately. Greece is facing a dire shortage of doctors willing to work in the public health sector. Due to poor working conditions and low salaries, most doctors simply cannot afford it. Thus, a parallel system of private care has emerged where those who can afford it buy care. And healthcare as a basic service for all is collapsing. Working in a refugee camp is even less popular because of the grim conditions and poor facilities. On the mainland, many camps have the occasional doctor visiting. On the islands, hardly any doctors are willing to work in the camps.

This month, we mapped the situation on the islands where there is a refugee camp. Besides Lesvos, these are Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos. On each of these islands, the access to healthcare is even worse than on Lesvos. On Samos, and recently also on Kos, medical aid organisations are present to, like we do on Lesvos, address the shortage of care. Different from how we work on Lesvos, these organisations do not have a clinic in the camps; they are not allowed to. On Chios and Leros, no medical aid organisations are present. This leads to distressing situations. For people with chronic illnesses and disabilities and those in need of specialist care. Pregnant women who are on their own. And because of poor hygiene, with running water only a few hours a day, infectious skin diseases and bites from rats and other vermin are widespread.

A number of organisations offering legal and social assistance operate on Chios. They do what they can, but without doctors this is very little, when it comes to medical needs. On Leros, no support organisations are present. We speak with a representative of UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, who is fortunately present in the camp, and with almost all the organisations working on the islands. In November, we will visit Chios and Leros to see what we can do. Our help is badly needed, that much is clear. The question is what is possible: we depend on the camp management for access to the people staying in the camps. We are liaising with the local authorities and the ministry. We will do what is possible to ensure that we can make a meaningful contribution on the other islands, too – in those places where no one else is present and people are left without even basic healthcare. Because healthcare is a basic right, for everyone. We cannot and should not forget people behind the walls of refugee camps.

The European Court recently ruled that the living conditions in the camp on Samos constitute ‘inhumane and degrading treatment’ and that human rights are systematically violated. This ruling follows a case already filed in 2020 on behalf of a group of unaccompanied children residing in the camp at the time. The Greek government must compensate them for their suffering. A very meager consolation, of course, after so many years. But a ruling like this exposes the gravity of what people are exposed to in the camps on the Greek islands.

Help is still needed. Even, even more, at a time when providing help is becoming increasingly difficult and more and more doors are closing. Your help, too, is needed. Because it is only together that we make a difference.

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