I went voluntarily to the police to ask for asylum. I thought I would find my liberty and dignity. I made the interview with the police. There was no translator. The police gave me the red card together with a white paper in Greek that I didn’t understand. They didn’t explain anything about the white paper. I didn’t know that it was a denial and that I only had 10 days to appeal. If I had known, I would have appealed. When I went to renew the red card the police took it away. This happened on January 18, 2008. The police said to me in English, “Leave this country.” After a few days, the police arrested me when I was walking in the street. I was put in the jail in Kipseli for seven days. The food was not clean and only once a day. When they released me they gave me a paper telling me I had to leave the country in 30 days. I tried to leave this country. I went to Santorini but they arrested me, brought me to the Athens airport and put me in jail for another three days, and then gave me another paper telling me to leave in 30 days. How can I go to Sudan? I don’t want to kill or be killed. I want to live in peace. But in Greece, I face problems. The police come to my building and they make us strip our clothes, even making us take off our pants. They can arrest me any time.304 Lack of Accommodation, Social Assistance Asylum seekers of all nationalities who manage to obtain and maintain their red cards have little hope of receiving support from the government during the often protracted time their claims are pending. The homeless and destitute among them often lack housing accommodation and other basic forms of social assistance, in part, because Greece only has reception center spaces for 770 of the most needy and vulnerable asylum seekers.305 304 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-34), Athens, June 1, 2008. 305 UNHCR, “Position on the Return of Asylum-seekers to Greece,” p. 7, para. 20. Stuck in a Revolving Door 112