The revelation has emerged that children in the EU-funded refugee camp on Sisam Island, Greece, experience inadequacies in nutrition.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced the first cases of malnourished children identified in a migrant camp on Sisam (Samos) Island in Greece. The migrant camp on Sisam Island is among the regions criticized by human rights groups for its dangerous living conditions.

MSF doctors indicated that six children between the ages of six months and six years from Syria and Afghanistan were suffering from acute malnutrition and in need of urgent medical intervention. Although it is not conclusively known whether the children’s malnutrition directly stems from the camp conditions, MSF emphasized that conditions such as inadequate food and health services in the camp threaten the children’s health. MSF also reported that the six children diagnosed with malnutrition arrived at the camp this year and called for Greece and the European Union to provide sufficient child health services and nutritional support, demanding the reinstatement of the financial aid suspended last June. Christina Psarra, the General Director of MSF Greece, urged immediate action, stating, “No child should experience inadequate nutrition due to systematic neglect.”GREECE: CASES DEEMED ISOLATED

The Greek Migration Ministry, on the other hand, argued that the cases are isolated. The Ministry’s statement mentioned that refugees are provided with three meals a day, asserting that there is no general malnutrition situation due to camp conditions. Greece, at the forefront of the 2015-2016 migration crisis in Europe according to United Nations data, faced a new influx of refugees in 2024. This year, about a third of the migrants reaching Southern Europe from the Middle East and Africa arrived in Greece.CAMP FINANCED BY THE EU

The Sisam camp, funded by the European Union, opened in 2021 as a replacement for the Vathy camp, a tent city that was once home to 7,000 people, overwhelmed with overcrowding and a rat infestation. “INHUMANE AND DEGRADING”

Amnesty International has previously described the conditions of the camp as “inhumane and degrading” during crowded periods due to water shortages and basic service deficiencies. Additionally, a United Nations human rights expert accused Greece of insufficiently identifying human trafficking victims in the camp.