NGOs launch roadmap for handover of refugee response to Greek Government

More than 2,000 unaccompanied children are on the waiting list for safe shelters in Greece, according to a new report by 15 organisations. The chronic shortage of accommodation for children is just one of the gaps in services that is worsening as the Greek Government prepares to take full control of the refugee response.

The report provides an overview of the current situation on the islands as well as on the mainland. It sets out a series of recommendations for the Greek Government, EU leaders and the UN for a successful handover to address the persistent gaps in services, access to asylum and opportunities to integrate with Greek society.

While some steps have been taken to move people to the mainland, the islands remain dangerously overcrowded with many families sharing unheated tents as winter sets in. A dangerous shortage of medical and legal staff risks people’s health and has contributed to long delays in the asylum procedure. On the mainland, unaccompanied children are increasingly spending nights in police cells, in squats or on the streets because of a shortage of safe shelters.

To improve the situation, the report says a mechanism is needed to move people to accommodation on the mainland as soon as reception centres reach their capacity. It also calls for all EU states to recognise their legal and moral obligation to consider asylum claims and to relocate the most vulnerable people to other countries in Europe.

It recommends that NGOs and the Greek Government invest in more programmes that build tolerance and integration, and in Greek communities that have borne the brunt of the sudden influx. It also calls on UNCHR – the UN refugee agency – to be more vocal and take a stand against the policies and practices being implemented in Greece that reduce standards and minimize safeguards in the reception, asylum and returns procedures.

Nicola Bay, Head of Mission for Oxfam in Greece, said: “It’s time for the Greek Government to step up and take control of the situation. It should seize this opportunity to learn the lessons of the past two years and to move people from overcrowded and unsafe shelters. Sadly, the misery we are witnessing on the islands will only deepen when winter sets in.”

Jana Frey, Country Director for the International Rescue Committee, said: “Of paramount concern is the safety and wellbeing of the over 3,000 children who are without their family and on their own in Greece. Only about 1,000 are staying in shelters set up to accommodate them. The rest are on a waiting list, with potentially hundreds of children sleeping on the streets or in squats. These children are at grave risk.”

Antigone Lyberaki, General Manager for SolidarityNow, said: ”The Greek Government has the required resources to receive refugees in a safe and dignified manner and support their inclusion into the society. What is needed now is full political will to resolve existing problems that make thousands of people suffer and to create a response system that will benefit both refugees and the hosting community.”

Aleksandra Godziejewska, Head of Mission of CARE in Greece, said: “Despite being in one country, as a direct result of the EU-Turkey statement, the living conditions and protection safeguards of asylum seekers on the Greek islands and the mainland are substantially different. We look forward to the results of the efforts to decongest the islands, and call the Greek government to implement strategies to counter the exclusion and marginalization that all refugees, men, boys, women and girls, can face during the upcoming process of integration.”

Notes to editors

Download the report, here

The report was jointly written with input from the following organisations:

ActionAid, Advocates Abroad, CARE, Caritas Greece, Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Greek Forum of Refugees, Greek Helsinki Monitor, HIAS, International Rescue Committee (IRC), JRS, Oxfam, SolidarityNow, Spanish Commission for Refugees (CEAR), Terre des hommes and Translators Without Borders.

More than 2,100 unaccompanied children are already on the waiting list for safe shelter on the Greek islands, with at least 100 more arriving each month. As of 1 August 2017, the Greek Government took over financing of the existing shelters for these children. At least four of them are facing funding difficulties and may close without immediate action, forcing even more children into police cells, unsafe accommodation or onto the streets.

At the end of July 2017, the Greek Government took over control of the management and funding of the response on the Greek islands from ECHO, the European Commission’s humanitarian division. Some humanitarian agencies have downsized or pulled out of the islands altogether, leading to gaps in vital services such as medical care.

Groups Press Greek Officials, EU States for Mainland Transfers, Improved Conditions

The Greek government, with the support of EU member states, should act now to end Greece’s “containment policy,” 20 human rights and aid groups said today. The policy forces asylum seekers arriving on the Greek islands to remain in overcrowded, unsafe facilities, an urgent concern with winter approaching.
Conditions on the Greek islands have continued to deteriorate in the month since 19 nongovernmental groups wrote an open letter to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, calling on him to move asylum seekers to the mainland, where better conditions and services are available.

“This remains a matter of life and death,” said Jana Frey, the International Rescue Committee’s country director in Greece. “There is absolutely no excuse for the conditions on the islands right now – thousands of people crammed into overcrowded and desperately under-resourced facilities. We are in a race against time. Lives will be lost – again – this winter – unless people are allowed to move, in an organised and voluntary fashion, to the mainland.”

Members of the group recently asked to meet with Tsipras to discuss the most urgent needs on the islands and provide recommendations for addressing this increasingly dire situation. They have received no response.

Over the past month, the Greek government has transferred 2,000 people from Samos and Lesbos to the mainland as a one-time emergency measure. When the government announced this initiative in October, these islands were already 5,000 people over capacity. It was clear then that this measure, while helpful, would not suffice.

“Nothing can justify trapping people in these terrible conditions on the islands for another winter,” said Eva Cosse, Greece researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Greece and other European Union member states should act urgently to remove the obstacles to people getting the care and assistance they need on the Greek mainland.”

As of November 20, 2017, the hotspots on Lesbos, Samos, and Chios are hosting 7,000 over capacity: 10,925 people are staying in facilities with a capacity of just 3,924. Thousands, including single women, female heads of households, and very young children, are being forced to live in summer tents, essentially sleeping on the ground, as the weather worsens. Some women are forced to share tents with unrelated men, putting their privacy and safety at risk. This will be the second winter asylum seekers have had to spend in unsuitable facilities on the islands since the EU-Turkey Deal went into effect.

“The EU-Turkey Deal is condemning refugees and migrants to a second winter in squalor on the Greek islands. Instead of trying to maintain the deal at all cost, European countries and Greece should urgently work together and move asylum seekers off the islands,” said Gabriel Sakellaridis, director of Amnesty International in Greece.

EU and Greek officials have cited the EU-Turkey Deal as a justification for the containment policy. However, forcing asylum seekers to remain in conditions that violate their rights and are harmful to their well-being, health, and dignity cannot be justified, the organisations said. As such, the groups have also written to EU member state ambassadors to Greece urging them to immediately call on the Greek government to suspend, the containment policy.

The groups urged Prime Minister Tsipras to protect the human rights of asylum seekers trapped on the islands by ending the containment policy, immediately transferring people to improved conditions on the mainland, and making a commitment to ensure that no one is forced to sleep in a tent.

Because the “containment policy” is being implemented in response to the EU-Turkey deal, the organizations highlighted the responsibility of the European Commission and the EU member states to address the situation on the Greek islands and to press the Greek government to reverse the policy. EU member states should support the Greek government’s efforts to ensure the safety and dignity of asylum seekers in EU territory, including by expanding safe accommodation and access to services on the mainland.

“In an effort to make the EU-Turkey deal work, the Greek islands have been transformed into places of indefinite confinement for asylum seekers who have risked their lives in search of safety and a better life in Europe,” said Nicola Bay, head of mission for Oxfam in Greece. “The EU and the Greek government need to start putting people’s lives ahead of politics and uphold Europe’s commitment to human rights.”

To read the joint letter to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, please visit:
https://www.solidaritynow.org/en/prime_minister_letter/

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Human Rights Watch

International Rescue Committee

ActionAid

Advocates Abroad

AITIMA

Amnesty International

Arsis

CARE

Caritas Hellas

Danish Refugee Council Greece

Greek Council for Refugees 

Greek Forum of Refugees

Greek Helsinki Monitor

Help Refugees

Jesuit Refugee Service

Lesbos Legal Center

OXFAM

Praksis

SolidarityNow

Terre des hommes