A home away from home under UNHCR accommodation programme

LIVADIA, Greece ­- Spring is in the air and 30-year-old Haysam is in high spirits as he strolls through the streets of Livadia, a small town nestled under the snowcapped mountains of central Greece. He has good reason to be; after more than three years of uncertainty in Turkey and Greece, the refugee is living in a flat provided by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, as he waits to join his family in Belgium.

To cap it all, his young wife Nazli, aged 21, will become a mother later this year. “She got pregnant in Livadia – I am very proud of that,” he confides. It’s the talk of the midsize town, where the affable Kurdish-Syrian from Aleppo has made many friends since being transferred here earlier this year from the crowded Cherso site in the north.

“After nine months, UNHCR called and said we have found a place for you in Livadia,” explains Haysam, who had in 2013 flown to Istanbul with his family after the war came to their district.

“ I stayed at home without food, electricity.”

He explains that the first floor flat, which is provided by UNHCR  under an ambitious accommodation programme funded by the European Commission is equipped with all he and Nazli could need, including furniture, appliances and kitchen goods.

They were also given clothing and help with the groceries as well as access to a wide range of social services. A far cry from Aleppo, where “there were bombs everywhere and … I stayed at home without food, electricity, water. I was forced to go,” he says.

Haysam and Nazli were overwhelmed by the welcome they received  by the people of  Livadia, whom he said were there for them, despite their own economic problems. “They don’t look at us like refugees. They deal with us like other Greeks,” says Haysam. “I made many friends.”

Livadia’s decision to accommodate asylum seekers, alongside the much bigger Athens and Thessaloniki municipalities, was spearheaded by Giota Poulou, its   visionary mayor. The pugnacious pragmatist consulted with all sectors of society, including the church and political opponents, to build consensus in the town and obtain agreement.  

The result is a win-win situation

The town has agreed to host some 400 people for placement in 70 apartments. The result is a win-win situation with the town making moral and economic gains, the asylum seekers  living in a real home rather than a crowded site and UNHCR supporting the Government of Greece in finding  a solution to a challenging  problem.

Livadia is an example that could persuade other mid-size towns to follow suit. UNHCR, which works closely with the Greek Ministry for Migration Policy, is keen to form partnerships with more municipalities and is engaged in discussions with mayors in Crete and Thessalia..

To date, UNHCR in Greece has provided accommodation for close to 30,000 asylum seekers under a programme  which was initially designed for people selected to benefit from the EU relocation scheme but was subsequently expanded to include particularly vulnerable asylum seekers.

This was achieved through a complex and difficult operation that also provided a whole basket of services and protection beyond simple provision of a safe and clean place to live. The Greek Government would like to see the programme continue and expand through this year as efforts to move people out of the camps continue.   

This accommodation programme is part of larger efforts aimed at ensuring that a sustainable and adequate reception system is put in place by the Greek Government. This requires the provision of more accommodation opportunities in urban areas such as the one made available to Hysam and Nazli, improving reception conditions on the islands and on the mainland, the provision of greater security in all sites, and ensuring that all unsuitable sites are quickly closed.

UNHCR is also urging EU Member States to increase the pace and number of people relocated and reunited with family members in other EU Member States. While relocation has picked up recently, to date only 12,407 individuals out of an initial target of 66,400 have been relocated from Greece.