Coping with a fundamental rights emergency – The situation of people crossing the Greek border in an irregular manner Reception facilities for asylum seekers Over 10,250 persons applied for asylum in Greece in 2010. In addition, there is a backlog of over 47,000 applicants, whose claims need to be reviewed by the newly established appeals committees. Compared to it, according to the Greek Action Plan, there are only some 615 places available for adult asylum seekers and 330 for separated children.58 The gap is evident. A particularly challenging task will be the identification of facilities to use for the reception of asylum seekers. Responsibility for this task lies with the Ministry of Health.59 However, the support of other ministries and public authorities will be necessary in order to identify a sufficient number of adequate buildings to host asylum seekers. Several obstacles were mentioned to the FRA in this regard. The Ministry of Health informed that there are no public buildings within their own Ministry which could be used for this purpose. Nor have calls for support from other Ministries been very successful. Several buildings that were identified are owned by public institutions (funds) and can only be used if rental costs are covered – something which the Ministry of Health cannot afford. Another obstacle is the need to change the use of the buildings (for example, from office to living space), although this procedure was described as being fairly simple. By contrast, more complicated appeared the need to deal with the opposition of local authorities who are usually not keen on seeing a reception facility for asylum seekers in their municipality. As a first step, the Action Plan identifies concrete buildings that could be refurbished and run as reception facilities. These include four facilities for immediate use, for a total of 273‐355 additional places. Part of the ERF emergency funds will be used for this purpose. The FRA did not verify when these facilities will actually be in use. These initial steps are integrated by medium term plans, including the creation of short‐stay hostels, NGO‐run facilities and a system of apartments. In light of the limited staff available to work on identifying facilities, the delays in processing proposals under the ERF and the above‐ mentioned obstacles in identifying public buildings that could be used for hosting asylum seekers, the FRA obtained indications that this will be a cumbersome process. The support to enhance reception capacities envisaged by the EASO should take due account of these difficulties and also be geared towards short‐term solutions. For example, expert advice on how to build on and support the capacities that exist within communities, e. g. through schemes supporting private persons who are ready to host asylum seekers, could be one way to enhance reception capacities while waiting for larger infrastructure to be available. 58 See Greek Action Plan, pp. 15‐18. 59 Presidential Decree 220 of 6 November 2007, Art. 1n. 40