Posts in category: Asylum Projects

METAdrasi’s Transit Accommodation Facilities provide unaccompanied minors with a safe, age-appropriate environment, covering daily needs, psychological and social support, healthcare, and legal assistance. The facilities also offered structured activities to foster psychosocial development, skill-building, and social integration through cultural, recreational, and educational events. During the project’s implementation, the transit facilities in Chios and Samos accommodated 114 asylum-seeking minors, primarily aged 16–18, from Sub-Saharan Africa, Syria, and Afghanistan. Additionally, 85 vulnerable individuals, classified as unaccompanied minors, received services, including both undocumented and recognized refugees.

HOUSE2 is a shelter providing safe accommodation for unaccompanied minors, with a capacity of 16 individuals. It primarily supports boys aged 6-11 and underage mothers with their children. Established in 2020, HOUSE2 was founded to address the urgent need for accommodation and care for the most vulnerable. During the implementation period 49 unaccompanied minors received direct support and 17 additional vulnerable individuals -including undocumented persons, recognized refugees, and children- benefited from services. The majority of beneficiaries were aged 5-12 and came from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The “DIAPLOUS” project offered accommodation to unaccompanied minors and women- single mothers and/or victims of sexual or gender violence, in Northern Greece. During the project 12 SILs apartments (Supported Independent Living) for unaccompanied minors aged 16 years old and older were operated. The apartments were located near the Safe Zones and camps in Lagadikia, Diavata, Agia Eleni, Drama and Kavala. Moreover, the Diaplous project offered some places in the shelter “The House of Arsis” in Thessaloniki, and 4 apartments for single mothers, victims of sexual or gender violence. The project was completed in February 2022. In total, 140 unaccompanied minors and vulnerable women, asylum seekers in Greece, from the Middle East, Asia and Africa were accommodated in places offered by the project.

The project aimed to protect and support women and their children during the asylum application process and to quickly find sustainable solutions for their smooth living in the country. The Open Accommodation Center operates by offering all necessary services to women and their children according to their specific needs. It is located in the centre of Athens, offering easy access to important services for the women beneficiaries, such as the Metro and the Open Polyclinic of Doctors of the World. With the capacity of 44 beds, it offers access to people with mobility disabilities, a room for disabled people, as well as specially designed areas for dining and creative activities. In total, 175 vulnerable women asylum seekers and their children were benefited during the implementation period.

The FUTURA project provided quality accommodation and a holistic package of individualized support services to 104 unaccompanied children, in ten (10) Supported Independent Living (SIL) apartments in Athens, Greece. It supported 25 non-unaccompanied asylum seekers and 82 unaccompanied minors (UAMs), aged between 16 and 18, with the majority coming from Sub-Saharan Africa. Each apartment hosted four children who received a range of services; legal aid, individual and group psychosocial support, non-formal education and skill-building activities, tailored to the needs of each child, by a core team of experienced social workers, caretakers and interpreters, with particular emphasis on empowerment and self-reliance.

The IOM’s Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) project aimed to facilitate the voluntary return of migrants in vulnerable situations, ensuring safe travel and sustainable reintegration in their countries of origin. During the implementation period, a total of 229 beneficiaries (53 men, 114 women, 38 girls and 24 boys) were assisted with their safe and dignified return to their countries of origin. In parallel, a total of 221 beneficiaries received reintegration assistance (49 men, 110 women, 38 girls and 24 boys).

The aim of the project was the provision of necessary support to the Asylum Service to set up a quality assurance mechanism (via developing centrally the Asylum Service’s Quality tools and SOPs and by providing continuous support to new and more experienced caseworkers in a very large caseload of complicated cases), as well as the increase of its presence regionally (to Offices across the country). The project was implemented by UNHCR and finished in February 2020.

The Greece Capacity Building Project aimed to enhance the ability of key government institutions to uphold the rights of refugees and migrants while ensuring dignified reception, particularly for vulnerable groups such as unaccompanied children and victims of gender-based violence and human trafficking. Its major focus was strengthening the Reception and Identification Service (RIS) and establishing and operationalizing the Greek National Referral Mechanism (NRM) for trafficking victims.