Inhuman and degrading’: report raises concerns over Greece’s refugee camps

The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) raised concerns Tuesday over the “inhuman and degrading” conditions in Greece’s refugee camps.

The committee’s report said the situation was particularly alarming at the Fylakio camp near the Turkish border — one of the “hot spots” set up with backing from the EU to speed up refugee processing.

“The CPT has once again unfortunately once again found absolutely deplorable conditions with persons having a little bit more than 1 square meter per person and it’s like everyone is crammed together, feminines, children, pregnant women also women and children together with completely unrelated men. So, holding persons for severals weeks or even month in such apalling conditions is an ongoing violation of tthe prohibition of ill-treatment,” Mykola Gnatovsky, President of CTP told Euronews.

The Greek minister for Migration Dimitris Vitsas spoke to Euronews in Brussels and said that the report describes a situation that doesn’t longer exist as the report was written back in April 2018, but still Greece is trying to cope with difficulties by itself.

“I wouldn’t say that Fylakio is at the best possible situation but the tenders have already been completed and there are works going on so that the 250 people that this can host, to be done in better conditions. And what we do, we do it without any substantial help, without any valve of relief for the migration and refugee flows in the country.