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Michael Leonetti
Zaatar
Athens, Greece

Hello! In this blog post, I will detail the circumstances that led to the closing of the Elpida Home for Refugees in Thessaloniki and introduce the NGO that I have been volunteering/interning with for the past few weeks.

First, a disclaimer: the Greek government is tight-lipped about its refugee-related policies and as such it is impossible to isolate a 100% verifiable reason for the closing of refugee camps in the north of the country. Below are some theories that have been floated in Greek government statements, news publications, and in volunteer circles.

The government is beginning an effort to move documented asylum seekers (i.e., those with refugee status, and to a lesser extent, those registered in the asylum process) into private residences such as apartments or government-controlled housing units. Those who lack documentation or who are in the earlier stages of the asylum process will remain in large refugee camps. In Thessaloniki, the government is shrinking the number down to two (Lagadikia and Diavatar) in order to centralize the refugee housing project.

This plan seems to be (primarily) financially motivated. It is no secret that the inefficiency of the Greek response to the refugee crisis has long frustrated officials at the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), who bankroll much of said response. Adding to the stress between ECHO and the government is the fact that NGO operations remain better-funded and more ubiquitous than those of the government, which has decentralized the response around the country. For a comprehensive look into how the Greek response became the latest example of humanitarian waste, check out this article from News Deeply.

As an attempted course-correction, ECHO will redirect funds that were going to NGOs directly to the government, starting August 1st. This redirection comes with some strings attached; many believe that the new plan to house refugees in apartments and centralize the camps is a condition of ECHO’s new cash flow to the government. A Medium article about the closing of the Elpida Home contains this view.

This is the most plausible explanation for the closing of Elpida and the imminent closing of many operations like it. We were an autonomous privately funded residential project filled with documented asylum seekers, exactly the kind of site that the government has set its targets on. At the end of June, all of the Elpida residents were moved into apartments around Thessaloniki. They will remain there while awaiting resettlement or family reunification. It remains to be seen whether the government can adequately provide services such as medical care and legal aid. At Elpida, we had all of these services and more on site. Providing them to families living around the city will be more complicated.

After we shut the doors in Thessaloniki, I began to look for a similar initiative in other cities around the country. After a week of searching, I ended up moving to Athens to work with Zaatar, an organization with a number of projects in the city. Currently, I hold a volunteer position and an internship.

As a volunteer, I assist with the day-to-day operations of the Orange House, a small residence and community center. The upper level of the OH contains a series of private housing units that shelters a total capacity of twenty-five women and children. The residence is overseen by a long-time resident and asylum seeker. In her role as head resident, she assists in the interview process during the potential intake of a new occupant, making the OH almost exclusively resident-run. Volunteers and visitors are forbidden from entering the residence except in emergency situations. Since we are located in an anarchist neighborhood with no police presence, government authorities rarely (if ever) enter the OH.

As an intern, I have been working with ATLAS (Aid to LGBTQ Asylum Seekers), a new Zaatar project geared specifically towards addressing the needs of LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers. We are primarily a referral service: every day, we are contacted by persons from around Greece (in addition to Turkey, Egypt, Nigeria, and a dozen other countries) looking for LGBTQI+-friendly legal services, shelter, medical care, and other services. We are also working to make partnerships with NGOs, embassies, government agencies, camps, and other actors around Greece to ensure that these especially vulnerable asylum seekers can get all the necessary information and help they need.

If you are interested in current refugee-related events in and around Greece, the Are You Syrious Facebook page is a great way to stay informed. Thank you for reading this post!

Michael Leonetti
Elpída Home for Refugees
Thessaloniki, Greece

Driving up the Lagada highway in Thessaloniki, the Elpída Home for Refugees is impossible to miss. In an industrial area full of rusting warehouses and abandoned  factories, the multicolored murals that cover most of the building (itself an old textile factory) separate it from the rest.

Colors light up the interior as well: wall art by residents and volunteers, hundreds of hand-knit blankets (courtesy of a German women’s knitting group), crafts materials, greenery, etc. While most of the neighboring industrial carcasses are eaten by weeds, Elpída is alive.

When I arrived, the site was slightly under capacity at around 20-25 families (~100 people in total). The residents are almost exclusively Syrian, with a few from Iraq.  Several are Kurdish. This is small by the standards of a refugee camp.

Each family has their own studio apartment on the top floor of the building, which also hosts a lounge with tables, couches, and a television, a large industrial kitchen and WASH area, a food distribution point (overseen by a Kurdish woman from Syria), a heath clinic, and several classrooms. In one of these classrooms, volunteers can take bi-weekly Arabic classes from a Syrian resident. I’ve been attending as often as possible.

The first floor hosts the majority of the services provided at Elpída . On one end is the ERCI office and volunteer lounge, a (colorful) room where we start and end every day with a briefing/conversation about ongoing projects for the residents. Also on the floor is the office of the International Organization for Migration, the main school area, and several important on-site actors: our protection officer, a social worker, and a human rights lawyer.

Our warehouses make up the ground floor. The majority of the space is used for storage—tools, materials, clothing, beds and blankets, water, etc. The shop occupies one half of one warehouse. In this space, stocked and arranged like the floor of a department store, complete with racks and fitting rooms, residents browse for clothes and items for their rooms.  Instead of cash, we use a point system that gets refilled monthly. In addition, residents often earn points for the services they provide to the community: teaching the kids, cutting hair, repairing clothes, running food distribution, and so on.

The warehouse also includes the NFI (non-food items) shop. This is basically a small CVS: toiletries, cleaning supplies, hygienic products, etc. Here, we use a quota system. Each resident’s quota is determined by the size of the family and individual needs. For example, a woman with six children has a higher quota for laundry detergent than a woman with two. Next to NFI is a large laundry area with café seating for residents.

Behind the building, we have a grove of olive trees about 100×100 yards. This holds the vegetable garden (a collective effort between residents and volunteers), an outdoor classroom, and a former chicken-coop-turned-doghouse.

Volunteers hold a wide range of responsibilities at Elpída . We are a maintenance crew, occasional babysitters, service providers, shopkeepers, and more. Outside of camp, many of us assist with social media and fundraising. Two of my projects have been to help create an outdoor classroom for the kids and country-specific information sheets for families being resettled in Europe. These sheets have essential information about refugee services and can help ensure that families have the resources to enjoy their rights after arrival.

At 7pm, every non-resident leaves the camp; it is, after all, the residents’ home. This is one example of the autonomy of the site. Our system is more conducive to coexistence and solidarity between residents and volunteers than the usual power dynamics of humanitarian aid. At 10am, we are onsite again and back to work.

Unfortunately, I have to end this post with upsetting news. A few days ago we learned that Elpída is being forced to close by the Greek government at the end of June. I am currently looking for ways to continue my fellowship in another autonomous camp. Details to come in the next post.

Michael Leonetti
Elpída Home for Refugees
Thessaloniki, Greece

Hi! Thanks for coming back for part two of this blog. Today was my first full day in Thessaloniki, and I tried to cover as much ground as possible on foot to get familiar with the city.  Some photos of what I found are at the bottom.

I’m writing this in a small vegan restaurant (e.g., soy “beef” gyros) on Balanou Street. Before my first day at Elpída, I’d like to try to answer two fundamental questions that come up in conversations about refugee issues:

• What makes someone a refugee?
• What rights do refugees have?

First, a refugee is someone who is forced to leave her country of origin and who is unable to return due to a well-founded fear of persecution or other harm to life and liberty. This persecution is inflicted on a person as a consequence of one or more of the following: religion, nationality, race, political opinion, or particular social group. As mentioned, a person must be outside of her country of origin to be considered a refugee; if she is displaced but remains within her nation, she is referred to as an internally displaced person or IDP.

One point about the “refugee” label is especially important to remember: refugee status is declaratory, not determinative; giving someone the label of “refugee” does not make her a refugee but rather recognizes that she is one and has been from the moment she crossed her nation’s border regardless of documentation or asylum status.

To answer the second question, I’ll break down the rights of refugees into three categories: the relevant rights of all persons, the rights of asylum seekers during migration, and the rights of refugees when settled in a host country.

First, the International Bill of Human Rights (collective name for the Universal Declaration of 1948, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights of 1966, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966) grants all of us several human rights related to nationality and migration. We have the rights to leave our country and seek asylum elsewhere, to have a nationality, and to not be arbitrarily deported by one’s own nation or a host. These basic rights are complemented by international refugee law.

The second and third categories of rights come mostly from the 1951 Refugee Covenant and its 1977 Protocol. Most of the rights of asylum seekers during migration are more accurately described as restrictions on governments. For example, governments cannot send a person back to their country of origin before processing their claim to asylum. This “refoulment” is prohibited, as is sending a person to a third party country that can be expected to send them back to their country of origin. A recent example of refoulment is the effort by EU and Libyan coast guards to apprehend and push back migrant boats at sea. In sum, people have a right to apply for asylum (e.g., refugee status) and have that application processed.

Finally, refugees have extensive rights in the host country. The 1951 Convention grants property rights; economic, social, and cultural rights; and rights concerning access to social security, welfare, and education. Refugees also are protected from torture and other government cruelty. Simply put, refugees enjoy the same rights as citizens of the host country and are obligated to follow the local laws. Host governments hold primarily responsibility for making sure that refugees in their territory enjoy their human rights. This means taking steps to help refugees overcome barriers such as financial instability, language and illiteracy, lack of transportation, and so on.

Since this is a short blog post, these are simple answers. Find more perspectives and an article about shipwrecks (and who’s responsible) here:

http://www.ijrcenter.org/refugee-law/

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/05/responsible-deadly-refugee-journeys-170522080533683.html

Being familiar with these rights is important not only because the world refugee population is on the rise, but also because nations continue to take steps to shirk their responsibilities. Recently, there have been moves around the EU to classify refugees as “economic migrants” and “irregular immigrants,” two labels that deliberately omit the word “refugee.” If people are labeled as such, they would not have the protections to which refugees are entitled. The motivations behind this are understandable. The responsibilities that a refugee crisis places on host countries create a considerable and unevenly distributed burden, but it is nothing compared to the weight of inaction during a humanitarian crisis.

Thanks for reading! I look forward to writing more after I get started at Elpída.

Michael Leonetti
Elpída Home for Refugees
Thessaloniki, Greece

Hi all! My name is Michael, and I am a rising junior at NYU double-majoring in Global Liberal Studies (Politics, Rights and Development) and Spanish & Latin American Literature and Culture, with a minor in Social & Public Policy from Wagner. This year, I was honored to be included among the 2017 Gallatin Human Rights Fellows. This is the first blog of a series that I will write over the next few months.

Broadly speaking, my project focuses on the rights of asylum seekers in Greece and their ability to realize those rights using their own agency. I see this topic as part of a broader effort to create a new narrative of humanitarian relief; specifically, that refugees and asylum seekers are ‘agents’ rather than ‘patients’ or ‘victims.’

I will spend the summer at the Elpída Home for Refugees in Thessaloniki as both a volunteer and researcher. This organization is a public-private project (funded by both philanthropists and the Greek government) initiated by Frank Giustra of the Radcliffe Foundation and Amed Khan. The two opened Elpída after witnessing the substandard living conditions of Greece’s many refugee camps. One of the failures of existing relief, in their eyes, was that it ignored the opinions, capabilities, and individuality of those receiving aid.  

Elpída’s mission is to maintain a humane living environment for families seeking refuge by prioritizing the individuality and agency of every resident. Unlike many asylum seekers in Greece, Elpída residents enjoy their rights to autonomy in many forms: they manage their own living spaces, control resource distribution points such as the food market, and are involved in decisions about the camp’s day-to-day functions.

This summer, I hope to profile the camp as an example of refugee agency in action. I will seek to answer the following questions:

• What does refugee agency look like at Elpída? How do the residents contribute, and what leadership positions do they hold? How does their involvement contribute to the standard of living (including access to essential resources, meaningful occupation, and empowerment within the camp and surrounding community) enjoyed in the camp?

• Are there structures at Elpída, such as democratic bodies or camp dispute resolution systems, that allow the residents to make decisions and administer justice internally?

• How does this structure of a refugee camp allow asylum seekers to enjoy their human rights?

These questions will guide me over the next several months. I hope to illustrate my research with conversations with many of Elpída’s residents and leaders, in addition to personal experiences and observations.

Thank you for reading! I look forward to posting the next entry from Thessaloniki.