also failed to take into consideration the severely limited capacity of NGOs – which were in practice called to implement the decision– to support their beneficiaries as part of the transition. With regards to distribution, in December 2023, a total of 9,967 asylum applicants (6,267 households), half of whom were reported as residing in RICs and half in temporary accommodation Centers, received financial aid throughout Greece.885 This amounts to less than a third of asylum applications reported as pending at first (29,885) and second (2,845) instance by the MOMA in the same month,886 and to less than two thirds of people reported by the MOMA as residing in the Greek reception system during the same month (17,115).887 Much like in the previous year,888 this highlights an ongoing gap vis-à-vis applicants’ access to financial aid, which given the significant difference between the number of first and second instance applications pending at the end of 2023 (32,730), and the total number of persons accommodated in the Greek reception system (17,115) during the same period –not all of whom were necessarily in an asylum procedure– seems to be attributable to a large degree to the aforementioned residency requirement that took effect in July 2021. Other factors explaining this gap are faster asylum processing times, which have continued leading to people losing eligibility, either due to a positive or negative decision being issued before they could access this type of aid, as well as further obstacles on account of the de facto detention practices observed on the islands. Namely, as noted in the previous update of the present report,889 in Kos, since the cash support programme was handed over to the MoMA, nearly all applicants on the island had stopped receiving this type of material reception support and, importantly, were no longer informed by the RIS of their right to receive it. By the end of 2023, based on GCR’s presence on the island, this issue seems to have been resolved to a significant extent, following the designation of a competent RIS official for this purpose, which in GCR’s experience has resulted in most applicants requesting access to financial aid, also receiving it. However, the ongoing requirement for applicants to hold a Greek phone number in order to be able to request cash support, –which presupposes that they have the ability to exit the CCAC in order to procure such a number– in conjunction with the ongoing de facto detention regime applied to newcomers for up to 25 days, and at times for more than a month until they can receive their applicant card and be allowed to exit the CCAC, continued leading to delays with respect to applicants’ access to this form of material reception. Of the 9,967 applicants who received financial aid in December 2023, the majority were from Afghanistan (23%), followed by Syrians (21%), nationals of Somalia (10%), Sierra Leone (9%), the DRC and Eritrea (7% each), and lastly Iraq (4%) and Cameroon (3%). Another 16% of beneficiaries were from a combination of other nationalities. The majority of beneficiaries (55%) were between 18-34 years of age, followed by those between 0-13 (24%), and those between 35-64 (17%), with another 4% being between the age of 14-17 and less than 2% being 65 years of age or older. With the exception of the latter two categories, which are characterised by an equal proportion of male and female beneficiaries, in all other cases the majority of beneficiaries were men. No disaggregated data on the family situation of the applicants was published.890 The amount distributed to each household is proportionate to the size of each household and differs depending on whether the accommodation provided is catered or not. The financial sums in 2023 remained the same as the ones distributed since 2021, ranging from €75 for single adults in catered accommodation, up to a €420 ceiling for a family of four or more residing in self-catered accommodation.891 In general terms, the sum provided is significantly lower than what is provided under 885 886 887 888 889 890 891 MoMA, Factsheet December 2023: Programme ‘Financial assistance to applicants of international protection’, December 2023, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/ysjv4c33. MoMA, Statistics, Consolidated Reports - Overview: December 2023 - International Protection | Appendix A, available at: https://tinyurl.com/yc2stzh7, table 11a. Ibid., table 6. AIDA, Country Report Greece: 2022 Update, op.cit., p. 149 AIDA, Country Report Greece: 2022 Update, op.cit., p. 150. MoMA, Factsheet December 2023, op.cit. Article 3 Ministerial Decision 115202/2021 on the ‘Terms of material reception conditions in the form of financial assistance to applicants for international protection’, Gov. Gazette 3322/B/26-7-2021, available in 180