George Stefanopoulos Coordinator of the GFRs Self-Advocacy Team

A statement regarding the homeless people at a difficult momentum

Once again, we find ourselves in the sad position to witness people living on the streets, with no hope and without the necessary means to continue with their lives normally. No jobs, no cash, no safe and permanent shelter. The evacuation of the squat on Themistokleous Street in the center of Athens and the subsequent abandonment of its people on the street confirms once again the lack of a solid accommodation policy as well as a unified strategic framework for integration.

The Greek Forum of Refugees along with the refugee and migrant communities receive calls from homeless people on a daily basis, recording their perpetual problems. In addition, we receive regular reports of evictions of refugees and migrants in both formal and informal accommodation shelters, a fact that is bound to skyrocket the number of homeless people. Unfortunately, this whole process is carried out without a structured integration plan to support it, by providing access to the labor market and facilitate all the necessary steps in an essential process.

It is clear that the squats are neither the space for integration nor can they provide an environment in which a person deserves to live. This is not a choice of the people themselves, but more of a necessity, especially when a plethora of serious problems in the urban fabric exist. We must finally tackle the accommodation issue at its root, as it is an issue that concerns all of us, especially in a period of a health crisis.

Through our campaign for the support of the most vulnerable elements of the population, the last couple of months, we have once again been confronted with the harsh reality: homeless people or people living in overcrowded small apartments and poor living conditions. This reality is not in line with a European welfare state, while at the same time it is an insult on human rights law.

Immediate solutions and a wider cooperation under the lead of the Greek State are required. So that we’ll never have to witness mothers with children in their arms or desperate and impoverished people struggling to survive out on the streets again. So that no child stays out of school, having its right on education denied.

We must all agree on this.

The Greek Forum of Refugees wishes to contribute, in essence, to the solution of the aforementioned issues and calls on both the institutions of the State and the civil society organizations to sit at the same table and agree unanimously on an action plan.

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George Stefanopoulos Coordinator of GFRs Self-Advocacy Team

The Self – Advocacy Team of the Greek Forum of Refugees have on several occasions

remarked on the flaws of the EU – Turkey deal and have foreseen most of the outcomes.

This agreement is another addition on a list of failed policies that are endangering people and violate basic human rights.

It was the 18th of March 2016 when the deal between the EU member states and Turkey was announced. A deal that guaranteed to put a halt to the ever – rising refugee flows through Greece and essentially towards the rest of Europe. Today we are witnessing the final outcomes of this agreement after four years since its implementation.

The EU – Turkey deal managed to trap refugees and migrants on both sides of the border, transforming desperate people into a political tool to be wielded as seen fit by the political powers involved, inevitably leading to the situation we are experiencing today on Europe’s border with Turkey. It follows the logic behind the Dublin regulation of creating buffer states for the sake of the rest of the member states only on a smaller scale; by creating buffer zones within a country in order to keep people at the borders.

In the case of Greece, the deal affected the asylum procedure as well as the proper reception and treatment of the newcomers on every level. It triggered the implementation of the geographical restriction policy, essentially transforming the Greek islands into prisons. People stranded in the islands do not have access to the mainland officially; where a plethora of services exist that they could benefit from and, above all, would otherwise solve the overcrowding issue.

Refugees and migrants have to deal with an understaffed asylum service department, which cannot handle the asylum application numbers forcing people to stay in the camps for prolonged periods of time. This also leads to the overcrowding of the camps and ignite severe reactions from both the refugee population as well as the local one. As for the services provided, they were barely enough to cover the local population’s needs to begin with, let alone the needs of the newcomers, especially on those kind of numbers.

It is evident that we are faced with failed policies; policies that have nothing to do with the “European way of life” and Europe’s commitment of protecting human rights.

We call on all relevant authorities to revise all such procedures and laws and provide an asylum system that falls in line with the European ideals of respecting human dignity and human rights.

It should be the asylum seekers’ right to apply for asylum in a country of their choosing. It is common sense that all the EU member states should share this responsibility equally, rather than creating buffer states; a tactic that brings darker periods of time in mind.

These regulations are playing with human lives.
It is time that the EU takes the responsibility that lies with it and act in accordance with the ideals that it defends and promotes.

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