May 2019 | Reception crisis in Northern Greece: three years of emergency solutions Since the UN left some months ago the situation has become worse. There is nothing to do…There is no help to find a job and get independent. It has been a month since the new doctor arrived. But no one goes to him and he just sits in his container…. DRC told us in emergencies we should tell the police guarding the camp to call the ambulance, but they don’t call most of the times we ask them to ... . We want to live in a city, learn Greek, find friends and jobs. I don’t want to live with the help of the state but to stand on my own feet. But if they cut the help we have now, we would become homeless because we don’t have anywhere to go. This is why we don’t have children yet. I feel fear. I fear for the future. And this despite the fact that I have experiences of many different jobs. By the end of February 2019, the couple had not received an answer to their appeals. They felt abandoned. Qassim said to us: “My mental health has deteriorated. I feel more ill now…. Now, they want to kick us who have asylum out, us who we never had a chance to learn the language and integrate, us who they put at the most remote place possible away from the cities. The only improvement is that the heater is working and electricity is stable now. So, our little prison has become more comfortable.” JONAS G.* (21) 4. Jonas G.* (21)cxxviii is from Congo DRC and a victim of torture. In July 2017, he was granted refugee status on Lesvos one year after his arrival on the island. Shortly after, he was transferred to Nea Kavala camp. Jonas suffers from mental and physical health problems. “I am in this camp now for one year and two months. It is not easy here. We live five persons in one container. I have many medical problems but here this is like the first thing they don’t care about. We are far from everything, but most of all we are far from the hospitals. Transport is a major problem. And there is only one military doctor here. But I don’t count him. He says just: You are fine. There is also no regular psychologist. We have nothing to do here. I want to learn a language, I want to be trained or study. Instead, I sit here and wait without knowing for what I wait. Nobody ever asked what I can do and what I want to do in the future. If you want to find a job, you need to go to the cities, but we cannot afford the transport back and forth or to rent a house there. If you are a recognized refugee, they don’t care about you. If you ask for help, they don’t do anything. They always say: ‘Wait!’ I fought hard to get an AFM and an AMKA. I didn’t know how to do that. We are new here. We need assistance. Without help we are blocked. I get 150 euro a month since I arrived here. I heard about the Social Solidarity Fund and I wanted to apply for it, but I was told I have no right to get it because I live in a camp. So I cannot change anything. I cannot make myself independent. I feel there is no difference between me and a person who has no residence permit in Greece. Even we have seemingly less rights. I tried to apply for a place in a UN flat last year. But they said I had no right for that as I got asylum in Greece… . I feel as soon as we get papers here, they forget us. We just do not exist for them. At the same time, I don’t feel safe in the camp… . People fight inside the camp with knives https://rsaegean.org/en/reception-crisis-in-northern-greece-three-years-of-emergency-solutions 24