May 2019 | Reception crisis in Northern Greece: three years of emergency solutions 3. ANNEX – SELECTED INTERVIEWS DIAVATA HASSAN M.* (58) AND NOURIA M.* (53 1. Hassan M.* (58) and his wife Nouria M.* (53)cxxv from Afghanistan escaped to Greece with their 17-year-old son. Hassan suffers from high blood pressure and high cholesterol; Nouria is diabetic. The vulnerable family arrived in Greece in early summer 2018 through the land border. For three months they stayed in the camp informally. Hassan told us at the end of last August: “When we arrived in Greece we reached Thessaloniki on our own. … We went to the Asylum Service to apply for asylum, but they told us we should go to a police station or any refugee camp to register first. Some other refugees told us to go to Diavata camp. There the police at the gate called the Aliens Police Department (Allodapon) and asked them to register us. We slept in a small tent during this first period… . We stayed for one month unprotected from the strong rainfalls of that period, getting wet again and again. Then we moved into the stone building in the middle of the camp for 15-20 days. … We suffered a lot because it was cold, humid and we slept on the floor… . We felt very unsafe. We had no choice, so we broke into an empty prefab house. Fifteen days after our registration with the police we had an appointment with the Asylum Service for pre-registration. Our appointment for the asylum application was scheduled for early September (2018). Here in the camp, we do not feel safe. We are permanently stressed. I don’t remember any time to be relaxed here. There are fights. One time during a big fight, we Afghan men had to bring all our children and women into the prefabs and lock them inside to protect them. There were men with knives and big woods. The police didn’t do anything. We had to stay in front of the houses to protect our families. Even I had to be ready to fight. You see: we escaped from war just to be in danger in Europe.” In October 2018 the family got finally registered in the camp as residents and from then on inhabited the container officially. Then they also started receiving cash-assistance. The family had their asylum interview in early winter 2019. “The main problem we face now is that the camp is overcrowded. Even inside the containers they place always two families. We were with another family until recently, but they left. Eight persons we shared two rooms, one bathroom and kitchen. The second problem is the distance from the city. We cannot access the services there easily, we cannot attend lessons there; we cannot learn the Greek culture. If you do not speak Greek, there is no job. But I cannot work anyway. I am old and sick. Our son has to study, but he will have to support all https://rsaegean.org/en/reception-crisis-in-northern-greece-three-years-of-emergency-solutions 21