4: EXCLUDED FROM SUPPORT AND PROTECTION This chapter analyses how restrictions on access to asylum impact the everyday lives of people seeking international protection in Greece. As highlighted in chapter one, dysfunctions in the system for applying for asylum have left many people without legal protection or access to their basic rights to healthcare, housing, and financial support. During their time waiting for an appointment at a RIC, respondents were exposed to risks including deteriorating mental and physical health due to lack of access to vital medical care and treatment, homelessness, destitution, and detention and pushbacks.⁶⁶ For people with vulnerabilities, these risks compounded existing challenges, putting them at further risk of harm. Following registration at a RIC, applicants reported continued issues in accessing their rights to full reception conditions, reflecting the wider crisis within Greece’s reception system.⁶⁷ (A) Denial of material reception conditions and healthcare Persons who have expressed their will to apply for international protection are entitled to full reception conditions without delay under EU and Greek law. Despite having made an application according to the definitions laid out in international, EU and Greek law, people who have requested an appointment to register their asylum claim in Greece are not in practice granted access to material reception conditions (Art. 2(c) and 9(1), 2013/32/EU; Art. 2(b) and 17(1), 2013/33/EU; Art. 1(c), 59(1), and 69(8, 4939/2022). Greek law defines material reception conditions as housing, food and clothing provided in kind or as financial allowances, and a daily expenses allowance (Art. 1, 4939/2022). For respondents who had to wait months for their registration appointment at a RIC, this had a huge impact on their physical and mental wellbeing, as they were unable to access support such as housing, healthcare, or cash assistance during this period. While waiting to register, respondents reported having to rely on friends to house them, or renting private accommodation which they funded through informal work, often in precarious and exploitative conditions.⁶⁸ Lack of access to accommodation was particularly significant given that the average time elapsed between respondents’ arrival in Greece and the date of the registration of their first asylum application was 10 months. 26% of respondents had lived undocumented in Greece for more than two years. One respondent, a 34 year-old man from Syria, had been attempting to apply for asylum in Greece for the past three years: “It’s been the same situation for three years - I can’t work, I don’t have a house. If I were in another country it would be much better, I would be able to get some sort of help with my situation.” “Due to the delays that are inherent in the Greek asylum process, people may be asylum seekers today, but their right to healthcare and financial allowances will be recognised in 6-7 months' time. For people in any type of situation this is dire enough; for specific categories of people with very pressing medical or other needs, we can imagine this can have absolutely destructive consequences.” Greek lawyer 26