never suitable for long-term accommodation, compliance with the standards of the recast Reception Conditions Directive should be assessed against the situation prevailing in each camp. Overall, even if conditions on the mainland have been generally reported as better compared to those on the island RICs,800 living conditions in the camps remain unsuitable. By way of illustration, out of 22 people residing in mainland camps interviewed by GCR, Diotima Centre, and IRC between mid-November 2021 and 1 March 2022, 10 described the living conditions in the camps as “very bad”, 8 as “Bad” and 4 as “neither good nor bad”. Moreover, in 68% of the cases, respondents stated that they do not feel safe in the camp, 60% stated they felt forced to share accommodation with people they did not know and/or with whom they did not wish to be jointly accommodated, 64% that the place they lived in was not clean, 50% that they could not easily reach necessary services (e.g. hospitals) outside of the camp, and 60% that they did not have a chance to get to know the Greek society or meet Greek people, due to their accommodation,801 further highlighting the negative impact of camp-based accommodation on prospects of integration. As noted by UNHCR in December 2022: ‘UNHCR considers that housing in apartments, particularly if there is already a programme in operation, should be retained as the preferred type of housing when emergency conditions do not prevail. Camps should be the exception and only a temporary response measure in situations of forced displacement, as our Agency's experience worldwide has shown that camps can have a significant negative impact in the long term for all. They perpetuate the trauma of displacement and create obstacles to finding solutions for refugees, whatever they may be. On the other hand, enabling refugees to stay with their host communities in conditions of legality and peaceful coexistence supports their ability to become self-reliant, to take responsibility for their lives, to integrate and contribute to their host community’.802 Challenges regarding the camps’ remoteness and their residents’ accessibility to rights and services, including education, also continued being reported in 2021 803 and in 2022, including on account of ongoing challenges with respect to the lack of transportation (or lack of resources to access it when available), which have continued being reported in the first months of 2023. 804 Out of the 24 mainland camps that were operational in March 2022, 5 still lacked public transportation, even though distances from the specific facilities to services that can be necessary (e.g. Citizen’s Service Centre [KEP], Tax Office and ATM)) ranged from 2 km to 31.9 km.805 Especially for the camps without public transportation and without a doctor present at the site, the distance to the nearest health facility or pharmacy can reach up to 15,3 km806. As noted by a single mother from Afghanistan in December 2022, after her eviction from ESTIA and return to a camp: ‘It takes hours for an ambulance to arrive here if there is an emergency. For any doctor 800 801 802 803 804 805 806 For instance, UNHCR, Greece Update No.16: Lesvos, 9 March 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3opJQkl. Data collected through a joint questionnaire prepared by GCR, Diotima Centre, and IRC in the context of the joint project prepared by GCR, Diotima Centre and IRC, under the joint project ‘Do the human right thing– Raising our Voice for Refugee Rights’. The project is implemented under the Active citizens fund program, which is supported through a € 12m grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway as part of the EEA Grants 2014 -2021, and is operated in Greece by the Bodossaki Foundation in consortium with SolidarityNow. As of 1 March 2022, 188 such questionnaires have been collected, albeit only 22 were filled by people specifically residing in mainland camps. New 247, ‘The government threw mothers with underage children on the streets’, 10 December 2022, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3AsMA7x. For instance, U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Greece, ‘Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2020: Greece’, 30 March 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3oCmF6F. Inter alia, as per information acquired during the 17 March 2023 protection working group for Northern Greece, which is organised under UNHCR. IOM, Supporting the Greek Authorities in Managing the National Reception System for Asylum Seekers and Vulnerable Migrants (SMS), December 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3L4TFhN. IOM, Supporting the Greek Authorities in Managing the National Reception System for Asylum Seekers and Vulnerable Migrants (SMS), March 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/43mIVEv. 169