system: out of 32,730 persons with pending asylum cases at the end of last year, 25,484 – more than ¾ – resided in RIS camps. The conditions offered by the state must guarantee asylum seekers “an adequate standard of living, which guarantees their subsistence and protects their physical and mental health based on respect for human dignity”.17 Greek law further provides that material reception conditions are granted by the RIS “upon condition that applicants are not employed or that their employment does not provide sufficient income”.18 Housing Most mainland camps offer accommodation in the form of containers housing one or more family units. Certain camps such as CTRC Thiva or CTRC Ritsona combine accommodation in containers with building or pre-fabricated units. CTRC Corinth has peculiar characteristics since it offers housing in large rub-halls, each comprising of twenty small “rooms”. These spaces are “particularly small for accommodation of more than one person e.g. in the case of families”. 19 Rooms inside the rub-halls have no access to natural light. Windows are placed on the side of the corridor and are thereby usually covered. Rub-halls are not equipped with showers, bathrooms or kitchens. Maintenance and security in mainland camps (facilities management) are implemented by private companies under a programme funded by the EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) 2021-2027.20 Yet, infrastructure is severely damaged and requires maintenance and repair “almost for all the camps”.21 In April 2023, the European Commission indicated to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum that “several places in the mainland sites are not available to support reception needs due to technical issues linked to the absence of maintenance and repairs” and urged the Greek authorities “to attend to the urgent maintenance and repair needs of the MPRICs and mainland sites”.22 Case study: Farzana*, her minor sister and their father are a single-parent family of refugees from Afghanistan with recorded psychiatric and orthopaedic issues. In September 2023 they were transferred from CTRC Koutsochero to CTRC Corinth and were placed in a small room facing an open corridor inside a rub-hall, without a bathroom, shower or kitchen for private use and without access to natural lighting. The room offered to them has not been adequately maintained – damaged walls and window, no secure lock. Rooms inside the rub-hall have no soundproofing. 17 18 19 20 21 22 Article 59(1) Greek Asylum Code. Article 59(3) Greek Asylum Code. Ombudsman, The Challenge of Migratory Flows and Refugee Protection, April 2024, 27, available here. ΤΑΜΕΥ, Παροχή Υπηρεσιών Διαχείρισης Εγκαταστάσεων (Facilities Management) Στις Δομές Φιλοξενίας Ενδοχώρας Της Υπηρεσίας Υποδοχής Και Ταυτοποίησης Του Υπουργείου Μετανάστευσης Και Ασύλου (Μη Συμπεριλαμβανομένου Του ΚΥΤ Φυλακίου), available here, here and here. Ombudsman, The Challenge of Migratory Flows and Refugee Protection, April 2024, 27. European Commission, Email correspondence: ‘follow up on maintenance of MPRICs’, Ares(2023)2865103, 24 April 2023. RSA REPORT │ REFUGEE CAMPS IN MAINLAND GREECE | JUN 2024 6