The humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has reported the first confirmed cases of child malnutrition in a refugee camp on the Greek island of Samos.

According to MSF, six children, aged between six months and six years, from Afghanistan and Syria are suffering from acute malnutrition and are in urgent need of medical assistance.

The Samos Reception and Identification Centre, funded by the European Union, opened in 2021 as a replacement for the former Vathy camp, which once accommodated up to 7,000 people. MSF noted that the six malnourished children entered the facility earlier this year.

Amnesty International has previously criticised conditions at the camp, citing instances of overcrowding, water shortages, and lack of essential services, which it described as “inhumane and degrading.”

While MSF stated that it cannot conclusively link the malnutrition cases to the children’s stay in the camp, it warned that insufficient food supplies and limited access to healthcare have significantly endangered their wellbeing.

“No child should suffer from malnutrition due to systemic neglect,” said Christina Psarra, MSF’s director general in Greece. She called for immediate intervention, highlighting that children make up approximately one-quarter of the camp’s population.

In response, Greece’s Ministry of Migration described the reported cases as isolated incidents. The ministry asserted that conditions in the camp do not indicate a broader issue of malnutrition, and noted that residents are provided with three meals per day.

According to United Nations data, Greece formerly the epicentre of Europe’s migration crisis in 2015 and 2016 has seen an increase in migrant arrivals in 2024. The country has received nearly one-third of all refugee entries to southern Europe from the Middle East and Africa so far this year.