Recognized refugees in Greece: an impossible future

Nieuws, 4 november 2022
Read time, 5 min.
Asylum seekers in Greece often live in inhumane refugee camps for years. Only a few are told that they can stay in Greece and receive a residence permit. You might think that would be an opportunity for peace and a new future, but nothing could be further from the truth: recognized refugees in Greece often live in extreme poverty.
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Not a penny

Marjan (25), her husband and her sons are a family from Iran who live in the Malakasa refugee camp, 40 kilometres outside Athens. They don’t actually have a right to stay there because the camp is officially only for people who do not yet have a residence status. Marjan: 'Before we received legal status, we lived in an apartment for young families. I was pregnant with our second child when we heard we could stay in Greece. But then they took everything from us: we had to leave the apartment, even though we didn’t have a penny.'

Rights versus reality

After being forced to leave the apartment, Marjan’s family slept on the street. Eventually, they had no choice to return to the refugee camp. 'We have been living in Malakasa for seven months now. We are only allowed to sleep here; we get no food or money. An NGO used to bring us a handful of beans, rice and oil every Friday, but that stopped. The only group who helps us a bit is the church.'

In Greece, the right to reception ends 30 days after a refugee receives a positive decision on the asylum application. But it can take months or even a year before a refugee actually receives a residence permit, and meanwhile they are no longer entitled to anything.

'On paper, they have the same rights as Greeks in terms of living, working and social assistance', says Spyros-Vlad Oikonomou of the Greek Council for Refugees, a partner organisation of the Dutch Council for Refugees. 'But because of the enormous bureaucracy, the unemployment and the lack of a serious integration plan, in reality those rights are inaccessible.'

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No future

Another Iranian woman, Mahnaz (35), has been living with her son and daughter in the Malakasa camp for four years. In August 2021, they were told they could stay in Greece, but since then she has been in the same situation as Marjan: no facilities or food, barely tolerated in the camp. She only received her official residence permit in June 2022, and now she must wait for the final papers before she can travel.

Mahnaz does not want to stay in Greece a day longer than necessary, although she doesn’t know whether she will be granted asylum elsewhere in Europe. 'My children have no future in Greece. How can this country help us when they already abandoned us in the camp? I would like to go to Germany or Switzerland, or maybe the Netherlands. Then my children can go to school, and I can finish my education and find work.'

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Life on the street

In Athens, 70-year-old Afghan Shahbibi and her disabled daughter Shaima spend a large part of the day on the streets, hoping someone will give them something. They no longer receive food or an allowance since they recently received their asylum status. The mother and daughter live in Athens in a shelter for refugees with medical problems.

Shahbibi: 'We’re afraid we will soon have to leave and we will no longer be reimbursed for the costs of Shaima’s medicines. We really want to join my son in Germany, but we need a doctor’s certificate for that and we just can’t get it. I'm old; what if something happens to me? Shaima can’t take care of herself.'

Discrimination

Refugees who are allowed to stay in Greece must arrange their own accommodation. But that requires a bank account, which is difficult to get. There are also many requirements in order to get rent allowance, and refugees must pay a deposit and rent in advance. Almost none of them can afford that. 'And when refugees receive rent allowance, it is too low to rent something in Athens', explains Oikonomou from the Greek Council for Refugees.

'We recently asked the mayor if refugees could participate in a new social housing project. He said it was only for Greeks, with the excuse that it had been financed by an EU fund not specifically for refugees and he "didn’t want to complicate matters". That’s just discrimination.'

Mustafa Mohammad is the founder of Velos Youth, an organisation in Athens that aims to offer a safe place for young refugees. Unaccompanied minor refugees have the right to shelter until the age of 18, but Mustafa sees many ending up on the streets, whether they have a residence permit or not. 'Some sleep outside, others move in with friends or rent a bed somewhere for €100.' The places the government used to allocate to these young people now go to Ukrainians, Mohammed explains. 'The government sends these young people to camps far outside the city, but they don’t want to go there. It’s a hostile environment for them and there’s nothing to do there. Young people need a safe environment and their friends.'

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Pushforwards

Jean Didier Totow of the refugee community organisation Greek Forum of Refugees sees no desire on the part of the Greek government to improve the position of refugees. 'The government’s new integration plan is a series of bullet points: it is clear they assume that refugees will return home or travel on to other countries. It solves none of the major problems.'

Louise Donavan of the UN refugee organisation UNHCR in Greece also sees a lack of integration possibilities. 'It’s a very, very big challenge. We plead with the government to facilitate and streamline the integration process.' But it is uncertain whether the Greek state is actually interested to do so. Totow speaks of 'push forwards': by making it impossible for refugees to live in Greece, the authorities push them to the north.

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