❖ Beneficiaries of international protection who upon turning 18 reside in accommodation centres for UAM or in temporary accommodation spaces for UAM, for a period of three months following their placement to the aforementioned accommodation spaces. In both cases, the new residency requirement as a pre-condition for receiving financial aid took effect on 1 July 2021, after first being announced through Press Releases issued by the MoMA in April and May 2021,945 and subsequently introduced in ministerial decisions in July and September. 946 As per the new framework, financial aid is provided to those eligible at the end of each month, as long as it can be certified that they continue to reside in facilities operating under the MoMA (i.e., facilities of the reception system). Applicants who are not accommodated in these facilities need to first apply, then be referred to and lastly placed in such accommodation, before the procedure for accessing financial aid can (re)start.947 The decision to interrupt cash assistance to asylum applicants not accommodated in the reception system raised significant concerns, inter alia because it amounted to the withdrawal of material reception conditions for an estimated 25,000 asylum applicants, 948 without any personalised assessment or reasoned decision, thus potentially also amounting to a violation of Article 20 of Directive 2013/33/EU (as transposed by Article 57 IPA, which was afterwards replaced by Article 61 Asylum Code). Furthermore, as highlighted by 30 civil society organisations in a joint statement published in June 2021, 949 the decision came at the detriment of integration. In practice, many of those affected were called to abandon a place of residence of their own choice – which they were able to sustain with the cash-based support – and to abandon their communities and friends, in order to return to camps, where they would have to be in isolation from society. The decision also failed to take into consideration the protection risks that could arise at least for some in the context of suddenly having to share accommodation in a camp. As observed,950 applicants from some communities ended up preferring losing the financial support out of fear that residence in a camp would expose them to risks connected with their fear of persecution. It lastly 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. Situation in practice With regards to distribution, according to the latest factsheet dated as of July 2024 published by MoMA, a total of 5,371 asylum applicants (3,689 households), the majority of whom (79%) were reported as residing in open accommodation facilities (camps), 21% in RICs and 1% in shelters, received financial aid throughout Greece.951 This amounts to less than a third of asylum applications reported as pending at first (17,885 ) and second (3,160) instance by the MOMA in the same month, 952 and to less than a third of people reported by the MOMA as residing in the Greek reception system during the same month (17,381).953 Much like in the previous year, 954 this highlights an ongoing gap vis-à-vis applicants’ access to financial aid, which 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. 945 946 947 948 949 950 951 952 953 954 MoMA, The financial assistance to international protection applicants that are not accommodated in facilities under the responsibility of the MoMA or MoMA partners is abolished from 1/7/21, 15 April 2021, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3IEvEgx and Pre-requisites for the disbursement of financial assistance to international protection applicants, 25 May 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3IDe5xx. Ministerial Decision 115202/2021 op.cit and JMD 2857/2021 Amending JMD 2089/16-07-2021 on a ‘Common Framework for Managing Programmes that are assigned to the Special Secretariat for the Coordination and Management of Programmes under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and the Internal Security Fund and other resources and are nor financed through National Programmes’ (Β’ 3120), Gov. Gazette 4496/2909-2021. Annex III, JMD 2089/16.7.2021 as amended by JMD 2857/29.9.2021. Estimates provided by UNHCR in the protection working group of 7 June 2021. Joint Statement, A big setback in integration: The cut in aid to asylum seekers, 24 June 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3qMKIBV. As per information shared in the national protection working group of 7 June 2021. MoMA, Factsheet July 2024: Programme ‘Financial assistance to applicants of international protection’, July 2024, available in Greek here. MoMA, Statistics, Consolidated Reports - Overview: July 2024 - International Protection | Appendix A, available here, table 10a. Ibid., table 6. AIDA, Country Report Greece: 2023 Update, available here, p. 180. 181