Online event with Helen Benedict and Samos Volunteers

We are very excited to invite you to an upcoming online event Samos in Focus: Exploring the situation for refugees and asylum seekers on the island over the years.

Samos is the closest Aegean island to Turkey. As the island became a refugee ‘hotspot’ in 2016 a camp was set up in a former military base in the city centre of Vathy. The camp was built to hold 650 residents living in temporary container units but at its peak there were around 9.000 people living in and around the camp. Lacking clean water, sanitary infrastructure and health care, the living conditions were inhumane and degrading.

In 2021, the EU-funded Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC) opened 8km from Vathy to replace the Vathy camp. The CCAC had a €43 million construction budget and was advertised as the solution to “ensure adequate living conditions for all groups of residents and dignified reception conditions”. The reality is very different as legal actors on Samos have reported de facto detention in the prison-like structure. There are currently over 2,500 people residing inside the CCAC with most people coming from Afghanistan (48%), Syria (25%) and Sierra Leone (8%).

Samos Volunteers opened its doors in 2016 and supported people living on the hill in Vathy. When the CCAC opened, they opened Alpha Land, a community space a 5-minute walk from the CCAC. Samos Volunteers currently supports refugees and asylum seekers on the island by offering psychosocial support, informal education, and clothes. 

Together with people who were on Samos at the time of the old camp, people who are working on the island now and stories from people who are currently living in the CCAC, this event will be a reflection on the situation over the years from 2016 until now. We will explore people’s stories and experiences as well as the role of Samos Volunteers.

We will be joined by Helen Benedict, a British-American journalist, academic, novelist and non-fiction writer. Helen first came to Samos in 2018, and returned many times, which led to the book Map of Hope and Sorrow: Stories of Refugees Trapped in Greece, co-authored with Syrian writer and poet, Eyad Awwadawnan. Their book presents the stories of five refugees who have endured long and dangerous journeys from the Middle East and Africa to Greece. 

This month, Helen released her newest novel The Good Deed. Set in 2018 and drawing on 4 years of interviews with refugees in Greece, it follows the stories of 4 women living in the Vathy camp.

We will also hear from Phyllis Seidler the Samos Volunteers Project Manager. Phyllis has been working on the island for 2.5 years and has seen the population in the CCAC reach 200% of its capacity.

The event will take place on 15 May from 18.00 to 19.00EEST.  

We will announce more speakers and further details closer to the event.  

Please register here for the free event, the only information we need is your name and email address. Feel free to mark the other boxes with an ‘X’. 

You will receive a link prior to the event.