UN expert voices alarm over failures to protect victims of trafficking on Greece's Samos island

The UN special rapporteur on human trafficking said Monday that she was alarmed by reports of failures in the identification of possible trafficking victims, especially women and children, in Samos, a Greek island in the Eastern Aegean.

Siobhan Mullally expressed her concern in a letter to the Greek government about the situation of victims and potential victims of trafficking at the Closed Control Access Centre on Samos, which opened in 2021.

"Reception conditions at the Centre, which now accommodates up to 5,000 people, despite its 3,000 limit, are reportedly inadequate and fail to provide its occupants with a safe, dignified and healthy living environment, and restrictions on liberty for those accommodated there are reported to be extreme," she said.

She stated that out of 2,170 asylum seekers who reportedly arrived on Samos in 2022, 285 were potential victims of trafficking.

"The allegation of lack of adequate identification is supported by the low numbers of survivors of trafficking identified and referred to the National Referral Mechanism across Greece, which could indicate inadequate identification processes for potential victims of trafficking," she added.

She also expressed concern over allegations that the Samos Greek Asylum Service does not appear to take into consideration incidents of trafficking and other forms of violence when assessing the eligibility of applicants for international protection, unless the incidents took place in the applicants' country of origin.