I Have Rights, together with 10 organisations, sent a letter to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum urging them to abandon their plans to restrict access to Wi-Fi at the Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC) on Samos from January 2023.

We and other stakeholders on Samos have learned that from January 2023, only asylum seekers with a valid asylum applicants card will be able to access Wi-Fi at the CCAC. These plans would create another barrier to accessing legal aid for people living in the structure. Leaving the CCAC is already conditional on holding a valid asylum applicants card. The issuance of this card can take up to 25 days, within which in many cases the asylum interview takes place. For newly arrived asylum seekers, Wi-Fi has been the only way to contact legal actors and receive information about the asylum process. The new plans will remove this possibility, which would further exacerbate the lack of access to legal aid. Furthermore, it is unclear to what extent the privacy and data protection of CCAC residents will be taken into account in the new plans.

The undersigned organisations therefore call on the Ministry to abandon its plans to restrict access to Wi-Fi in the CCAC.

The full letter can be read in English and Greek here.

Signing Organisations

  1. Avocats Sans Frontières France
  2. Choose Love
  3. Europe Must Act
  4. Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
  5. I Have Rights
  6. Mare Liberum
  7. Mobile Info Team
  8. Refugees International
  9. Refugee Legal Support
  10. Samos Volunteers
  11. Yoga and Sport With Refugees