AYS Weekend Digest 27–28/2/2021 People left on the streets as Filoxenia shuts down
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Mediterranean, Digest, Iom, Refugees, Filoxenia

Featured — People left on the streets as Filoxenia shuts down

Several evictions are planned for Monday 1st of March from IOM structures throughout the country, part of the ‘Filoxenia’ project, which is shutting down. It is estimated that in total around 7,000 people will be evicted.

As reported by Vasilika Moon, organisation operating in Corinth:

the Filoxenia program provided temporary accommodation to asylum seekers at state-leased hotels. Seventy-nine hotels were leased under Filoxenia in the last 15 months. It provided 6,898 places to asylum seekers. The hotels hosted vulnerable groups from the reception and identification centres of the islands, including families with children. So what’s the result? almost 7000 people in the streets in distress. Among them many many families and children. We are receiving dozens of calls of desperate people looking for a place to stay and for food. The majority of them still don’t have the official documents yet and so they can’t travel or be included in other help programs.

Evictions already took place over the last month and have left people on the street in Thessaloniki, Athens and Corinthos (Agioi Theodoroi).

Viktoria Solidarity report about the situation in the Athenian Platia Victoria, where people started gathering, in a cold reminder of the situation of last summer.

Since Friday night there have again been people sleeping on the square after having been evicted from an IOM hotel in Thessoloniki. The hotel was part of a recently terminated government-run program called FILOXENIA that temporarily housed people transferred from the islands. We have been told that on Monday an IOM hotel in Nea Makri, that houses up to 500 people will also be evicted.

People do not have adequate food, water, warm clothes or access to healthcare.

As the number of families in the square grew from Friday to Sunday police presence and harassment increased, against both people on the move and solidarians.

On Saturday night cops shouted at the people to show their papers. As we were standing there bringing some food, the cops came over to us and fined us for breaking the curfew. Throughout, the argument and language of the cops was racist, dehumanizing, and threatening. They shouted at the seated families again, and left.

On Sunday, authorities took people sleeping in Platia Victoria to the Amygdaleza detention centre. There is no reason for their detention and no information has been given on the duration of their detention.

The closing of the Filoxenia accommodation programme is part of the restructuring of the Greek refugee support system. Now, only the Helios accommodation program is available for people leaving the camps. As we previously reported, registering for Helios in normal times is difficult; during lockdown it becomes impossible.

At every step of the asylum process people are forced to rely on temporary benefits, designed to never be enough, and designed to shift people around. This is an intentional structure of fear designed to separate people from society.

In Sparta, an eviction of 70 people is taking place at the time of writing. We have been informed that police gave the residents an ultimatum before cutting water and electricity supplies at 11am.

It is also reported that the Migration Ministry has shared lists with the names of people evicted with camp managers in the country, banning them from accessing the structures.