(C) Lack of provision for vulnerable people Eight respondents reported that they had a vulnerability, however all but one shared that their needs were not properly catered for during their stay in the camp At the end of December 2023, there were 1,986 people living in Greece’s 27 mainland reception facilities whom the authorities deemed to be entitled to special reception conditions¹⁵². Greek law states that the needs of vulnerable persons such as minors (accompanied and unaccompanied), people with disabilities, elderly people, single-parent households and pregnant women should be taken into account in the provision of reception conditions (Art. 62(1) of the Asylum Code). However as noted by UNHCR¹⁵³, during monitoring visits there were severe gaps in the provision of special reception conditions in most of the mainland accommodation facilities. Aside from addressing issues of physical mobility by providing ramps in some accommodation containers, many vulnerabilities are not adequately catered for in camps, for example survivors of trafficking, gender-based violence and torture, who reside in facilities without psychosocial staff due to shortages of EODY staff in conjunction with the remoteness of camps and lack of transportation. RSA similarly noted¹⁵⁴ that vulnerable applicants are mostly held in the same conditions as general camp populations without consideration of their specific support needs. Eight interview respondents reported that they had a recognised vulnerability including one pregnant woman, one survivor of torture, four people with serious medical conditions, one survivor of female genital mutilation (FGM) and one survivor of sexual or gender-based violence (SGBV). Significantly, all but one of these people reported that they were not provided with additional support in the camp to cater to needs arising from their vulnerability. Additionally, the cases outlined below illustrate that vulnerable people experienced more extreme impacts stemming from lack of access to basic services such as healthcare: A Palestinian man suffering from cancer in Katsikas camp who had been living in the camp for five months reported multiple issues related to accessing essential healthcare services. One key barrier was lack of interpreters provided by the camp or the hospital, resulting in difficulties communicating with hospital staff and on one occasion being turned away as doctors refused to treat him without a translator. He additionally reported that he bought the wrong medication from a pharmacy due to lack of translation and had to rely on friends to accompany him to hospital where possible to translate, however this required paying for their bus fares. His entire financial allowance was spent on medicine and transportation to hospital appointments. Transport to hospital was only arranged on one occasion by the camp, whilst generally he had to take two buses or a taxi costing 13 euros each way. Navigating public transport was challenging given his unfamiliarity with technology. Concerningly, he shared that he wanted to stop his cancer treatment as he believed this was a reason for delays in his asylum process. 36