At the end of 2022, the Greek government terminated the EU-funded ESTIA housing programme, which accommodated vulnerable asylum seekers in apartments in cities. When operational, ESTIA was widely praised as a dignified way to accommodate asylum seekers which aided their integration into Greek society. The choice to terminate the programme was apparently political³¹, given the widespread support³² for the scheme and the EU’s commitment to extend funding³³ for the project. Camps are therefore now the only state-provided accommodation available to asylum seekers in Greece. A decision of the Ministry coming into effect in July 2021³⁴ then restricted financial aid (administered via a “cashcard”) to people who can prove ongoing residence in a facility operated by the MoMA, effectively forcing people to live in camps in order to avoid destitution. In the first half of 2023, IOM formally withdrew from the mainland camps, having provided site management support to the national authorities since 2016 under the EU-funded HARP programme³⁵. As a result, during the past year the mainland’s 27 reception facilities for asylum seekers have been entirely operated by the Greek state. The authorities outsource the provision of food, facilities management and security services in camps to private companies³⁶. UNHCR monitors conditions through regular site visits to all mainland camps and, according to information provided in the context of the UNHCR National Protection Working Group, they have noted a significant deterioration in conditions within mainland reception sites in recent months, due to an accumulation of challenges relating to lack of interpretation services, transportation and limited psychosocial staff, especially in remote accommodation facilities³⁷. In recent years there has been a simultaneous reduction in the presence of non-governmental actors in the camps; lawyers, CSO workers and relatives of residents face restrictions on entry to the mainland camps, with reports from practitioners³⁸ that access to camps is frustrated by lengthy bureaucratic processes, delays in receiving approvals and perceived deliberate obstruction by camp administrations and security personnel. Restricted access for non-state actors is compounded by a lack of publicly available statistics since IOM ceased publishing monthly factsheets³⁹ on the mainland reception facilities in March 2022, leading to no effective oversight⁴⁰ of needs and capacities in the reception system. A consortium of CSOs called on the MoMA to resume regular publication of statistics on the mainland camps in a joint letter⁴¹ in October 2023, however no proactive steps have been taken in this regard to date. Parliamentary scrutiny instigated by RSA has been the only way to secure detailed information on reception conditions⁴². 2024 has arguably seen unprecedented disruptions in the reception system, leading to disastrous restrictions on access to material reception conditions for applicants, including people with serious vulnerabilities. The effects of the policy changes outlined above and disruptions to key services are analysed in this report (see pages 25-41). Photo: Accommodation containers in Koutsochero camp, where residents report suffering from dusty and noisy conditions due to the facility’s proximity to a marble quarry. 14