It ignores existing high rates of unemployment in Greece (reaching 16% in 2020), stringent restrictions on mobility under the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as pervasive forms of structural violence and racism within state institutions and the labour markets, – formal and informal alike – which make it extremely difficult for many migrants to find work. In response to the enactment of this policy, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) states: There is only one outcome from the Greek Government’s decision: homelessness.” Throughout late 2020 and into 2021, evictions escalated as people with nowhere else to turn attempted to remain in the homes they had been provided as long as possible. Abandoned by state and larger humanitarian structures, many at risk of eviction turned to solidarians and self-organised groups across major cities (i.e. Thessaloniki, Athens) who stepped in to provide information, access alternative housing and resist evictions. In many instances, police were dispatched and issues of enforced homelessness/housing instability were then compounded via interactions with carceral systems and legal procedures that, invariably, have the propensity to further jeopardise people's legal status in Greece. Survivors, an advocacy group composed of beneficiaries of the MSF rehabilitation clinic for victims of torture, based in Athens, comments on the topic: “For those of us who have experienced destitution, we know the mental impact of this will be catastrophic. Fear, stress, and depression are the everyday reality of the streets. For us as survivors, homelessness meant retraumatisation and a return to the horrors of the past. The physical dangers are just as lethal: sickness, malnutrition and violence from passers-by and the police. On a social level, refugee homelessness will mean more division between Greeks and migrants, more dependency, and more criminalization of black and brown faces.” (more here). Stable, safe and suitable housing –the possibility of a home – is and must be viewed as a basic need; the first step in a long process for people fleeing violence and oppression in rebuilding their lives. Evictions, and their preceding threats, have the potential to compound existing trauma and oppression, and play into real issues of structural racism and xenophobia –exposing people to criminalization and police violence. 12