2 - OVERVIEW: GREECE’S MAINLAND RECEPTION SYSTEM There are currently 27 reception facilities on the mainland operated by the Greek Reception and Identification Service (RIS). These include three registration centres for processing new arrivals and unidentified asylum seekers (the mainland RICs of Diavata and Malakasa and Fylakio RIC at the Evros border with Turkey). The remaining 24 facilities are accommodation camps situated across the mainland, formally known as Controlled Access Facilities for the Temporary Accommodation of Asylum Seekers (CAFTAAs), including Attiko Alsos camp, which solely accommodates people undergoing so-called¹⁵ assisted voluntary return programmes. At the end of December 2023, 15,330 asylum seekers were resident in Greece’s mainland refugee camps¹⁶. Whilst much attention has been placed on the reception facilities in the Aegean islands, where conditions have been widely denounced as inhuman and degrading by civil society organisations¹⁷, Members of the European Parliament¹⁸, and most recently by the Council of Europe¹⁸, relatively little is known about the conditions in mainland camps. The majority of camps were erected as emergency structures from 2016 onwards, following the closure of the so-called Western Balkan route to Northern Europe, which led to the trapping²⁰ of approximately 50,000²¹ people on the move in Greece, creating an unprecedented²² strain on the reception system. These structures were not managed by the Greek State but by intermediaries including IOM and UNHCR who undertook site management support. In March 2020, all mainland camps were formally established as ‘Temporary Reception Structures’ through a ministerial decision²³. Due to the remoteness of camps and limited spaces within state-provided accommodation, many people seeking international protection in Greece since 2016 and before have lived in selforganised squats and camps, while homelessness and destitution have remained a reality²⁴ for both asylum seekers²⁵ and beneficiaries of international protection²⁶. In recent years, squats have been consistently raided by police, leading to the breakup of communities and displacement of populations into remote camps where their access to services, support and society is highly limited. The violent eviction²⁷ of the self-organised Lavrio camp for Kurdish refugees in 2023 resulted in the forcible transfer of tens of people to remote camps almost 100 km from where they had lived for decades. When the New Democracy party came to power in 2019, their rhetoric explicitly pledged to tighten controls and reduce material conditions for refugees, banishing them from Greece’s cities²⁸. In 2021 and 2022 respectively, the camps of Skaramangas and Eleonas located close to and inside Athens were cleared and closed²⁹. Riot police were deployed to evict residents of Eleonas, which resulted in violent clashes and was instigated by government plans to develop the area in which the camp was situated³⁰. 13