The manufactured homelessness crisis of refugees in Greece and the ongoing cycle of violence

Author: Erina Bazán López

May 7, 2026

HRRC calls for an integrated framework that recognizes stable housing, mental health support, vocational development, and language acquisition as essential prerequisites for human dignity, insisting that protection without dignity is no protection at all.

A woman and a child stand outside a tent as refugees and migrants from the destroyed Moria camp are sheltered at a temporary camp, on the island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 16, 2020. [Image credit: Reuters]

Once an individual is granted international protection in Greece, the system transitions from a logic of "protection" to one of "abandonment". This “Victory Trap” means that the very document intended to guarantee safety becomes a catalyst for homelessness. The Greek state has engineered a “protection gap” where the provisional social security and healthcare number (PAAYPA) is deactivated in just a month after a positive decision is registered, while the permanent AMKA remains inaccessible for months due to administrative backlogs or limitations to acquire the requirements such as proof of residence. This process leaves a supposed success in the asylum request system without essential access to much needed healthcare, amongst which is mental health support; given the experiences most refugees encounter in their journey arriving to Greece, this is absolutely paramount.

The lack of a social housing sector in Greece exacerbates this crisis, as recognized refugees find themselves excluded from the private rental market due to pervasive racial discrimination and the inability to provide long-term leases. Landlords and brokers frequently reject applicants based on their names, origin, or skin color, or they impose a “refugee tax” by tripling required deposits. Without a stable address, refugees enter a “Circular Trap,” where they cannot open a bank account without a work contract, and cannot secure a legal work contract (AMA) without a bank account or an active AMKA.

This “State-Manufactured Precarity” directly facilitates the funneling of refugees into the informal economy. Desperate for survival, many are forced into exploitative labor in the agricultural, construction, domestic work, and hospitality sectors, where brokers may subject them to wage theft and other deplorable conditions. Single men are particularly targeted by this system, as they are often de-prioritized for aid and transition from “vulnerable boys” to “threatening men” the moment they turn 18, ending up sleeping in public squares, porches, and ruins.

This man-made catch 22 results in refugee populations being increasingly more likely to be vulnerable to dangerous situations, such as drug use, and it turns out Greece has long found itself having an issue with drugs given that the territory is a nucleus of routes for drug trafficking into Europe.

The synthetic drug known as "bonsai" (also called "Spice" or "K2") has emerged as a significant threat to vulnerable populations in Greece due to its low cost and high accessibility. Chemically, bonsai is not related to cannabis but consists of various plant materials sprayed with lab-produced synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists. These substances are designed to mimic THC but are often 100 times more potent. The drug is exceptionally dangerous because its composition changes batch-to-batch, leading to unpredictable effects including paranoia, loss of reality, seizures, respiratory distress, and sudden heart failure. Bonsai accumulates in the body, causing prolonged and excessive effects. In Athens, the impact of bonsai is increasingly visible; a recent case in Patisia involved a one-year-old baby who required ICU treatment after accidental exposure to the substance at home. These incidents, compounded by homelessness and a lack of support networks expose marginalized groups like refugee communities to severe health risks. 

The prevalence of these drug-related crises, alongside rising HIV infection rates among drug users following austerity-era health cuts, has fueled an increase in stigma and discrimination. Public and political narratives in Greece regarding migrants and refugees have become exceptionally negative, moving away from the humanitarian "solidarity movement" seen in 2015. Instead, migrants are increasingly framed as a "problem" associated with criminality and cultural threat. This shift in public perception directly impacts the ability of individuals and organizations to provide aid. Trust in NGOs has plummeted, and aid workers face "discreditation campaigns" and surveillance. In some instances, volunteers and NGOs have been subjected to violent attacks, and journalists reporting on migration have been harassed or physically assaulted.

This hostile climate has allowed the Greek government and the EU to pass legislation that significantly complicates the asylum process. The 2019 International Protection Act (IPA) lowered protection standards and expanded the maximum detention period for asylum seekers from 3 to 18 months. Furthermore, the government introduced Joint Ministerial Decision (JMD) 3063, which established a mandatory registry for NGOs working in migration. This registry imposes "burdensome and intrusive" requirements, such as disclosing the personal data of all staff and volunteers and providing detailed financial records for the previous two years. Failure to comply within 24 hours of a staff change can lead to an organization’s automatic deletion from the registry, effectively barring them from operating or receiving funding. This administrative weaponization has a "chilling effect," silencing civil society and reducing the independent monitoring of human rights.

Ultimately, this prevalence of destitution is not an accidental byproduct of a failing bureaucracy, but a predictable outcome of policy choices that utilize the threat of homelessness as a visible deterrent. By institutionalizing containment in isolated camps and systematically restricting access to basic supports once status is granted, the state has transformed legal protection into a state of precarious invisibility that strips away the foundation of social dignity. As further deterrents, the tightening of legal and physical borders has created lethal barriers for asylum seekers. Reports indicate that pushbacks, which is the practice of violently turning away migrants at land and sea, have become "de facto general policy". Migrants are reportedly abandoned in unseaworthy vessels or towed back to Turkish waters, leading to an increase in deaths at sea. If that wasn’t dissuasive enough, the centralization of asylum services, like the transfer of the ESTIA housing program from the UNHCR to the Ministry of Immigration in 2021, has allowed for the expansion of "closed controlled" facilities and entirely shut down all of the little social housing that the government previously provided. These environments, coupled with the lack of independent NGO oversight due to registration barriers, make it easier for authorities to abuse migrant populations without accountability. And in its most recent disincentive to anyone considering seeking asylum in Greece or in the EU is the EU’s newest Pact on Migration and Asylum, which will take effect next month, starting June 2026; not only enforces stricter controls but also allows for the people who are rejected as asylum seekers to be deported to a “safe” third country. These seemingly neverending deterrence strategies for people to escape atrocities and seek to make a better life for themselves and their families that will in all likelihood lead to violations of human rights cannot continue to be allowed or executed by the EU or its Member States. This all needs to change and, moving forward, deterrence policies should not risk individuals’ human rights. Policy must abandon fragmented, reactive models that provide only for biological maintenance and instead adopt an integrated framework that recognizes stable housing as the essential prerequisite for vocational development, language acquisition, and the restoration of mental well-being of accepted refugees.

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Glossary

• Acquisition: the process of gradually learning something or gaining something such as a skill.

• AMA: is a national insurance number. This insurance number gives foreign residents the right to work in Greece, and is usually provided by a Greek employer after receiving a job offer.

• AMKA: a Greek Social Security Number. It is critical to have if you are or plan to live, work or retire in Greece.

• Asylum Seeker: a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country, but who hasn’t yet been legally recognized as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim.

• Austerity: a situation in which people's living standards are reduced because of economic difficulties.

• Backlog: a large number of things that you should have done before and must do now.

• Batch: a group of things that are dealt with or produced at the same time.

• Bonsai/K2/Spice: active ingredient is a type of synthetic cannabinoid that produces effects similar to cannabis. Because bonsai is a synthetic, unnatural substance—created in a laboratory—it carries extremely serious risks.

• Cannabinoid: several structural classes of compounds found primarily in the Cannabis plant or as synthetic compounds.

• Catalyst: a condition, event, or person that is the cause of an important change.

• Catch 22: a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations.

• Circular Trap: way of referring to the administrative Catch-22, crafted by Abdelrahman Zein referring to the most distinct mechanism of exclusion I encountered was the circular trap of employment requirements.

• Closed controlled facilities: the centres are referred to as “Multi-Purpose Reception and Identification Centres (MPRIC)”, while the Greek government has officially chosen the term CCAC. CCAC are regional operation units of the Reception and Identification Service. CCAC may also include a Reception and Identification Centre, a temporary accommodation facility, as well as special accommodation facilities with all the necessary provisions for vulnerable individuals.

• De facto general policy: a legal concept used to refer to what happens in reality or in practice.

• Deplorable: very bad.

• Discreditation: to cause people to stop respecting someone or believing in an idea or person.

• ESTIA housing program: an accommodation program for applicants of asylum and their families. 

• EU Pact on Migration and Asylum: a set of new rules managing migration and establishing a common asylum system at EU level

• International Protection Act (IPA) : In November 2019, Greece passed a new asylum law that restricted the rights and protections granted to asylum seekers and refugees.

• Joint Ministerial Decision: A joint decision of the Ministers of Interior, Public Administration and Decentralisation, of Economy and Finance, of Foreign Affairs, of Employment and Social Protection, of Rural Development and Food and of Public Order shall determine the criteria to taken into consideration, the procedure for the preparation of the report referred to in paragraph 3, as well as the specific conditions for inviting third-country nationals in the country for dependent employment.

• Mimic THC: (to imitate closely) the main psychoactive ingredient of marijuana.

• Nucleus: a central part about which other parts are grouped or gathered.

• PAAYPA: is automatically issued with the international protection applicant's card by the Asylum Service and guarantees you the provision of healthcare services.

• Paramount: more important than anything else.

• Paranoia: mental illness characterized by systematized delusions of persecution or grandeur usually without hallucinations.

• Pervasive: present or noticeable in every part of a thing or place.

• Potent: very powerful, forceful, or effective.

• Provisional: for the present time but likely to change.

• Pushbacks: a variety of state measures aimed at forcing refugees and migrants out of their territory while obstructing access to applicable legal and procedural frameworks. In doing so, States circumvent safeguards governing international protection (including minors), detention or custody, expulsion, and the use of force.

• Precarity: the state of being uncertain or likely to get worse.

• Receptor Agonists: A receptor is a specialized protein, located in the cell membrane, cytoplasm or nucleus of a target cell, which acts to pass on a chemical message. Both receptor agonists and antagonists are often used pharmacologically to mimic or to block the effects of hormones.

• Respiratory Distress: labored breathing and is characterized by an inappropriate degree of effort to breathe based on rate, rhythm, and subjective evaluation of respiratory effort.

• Safe third country: the STC(Safe Third Country) concept is based on the assumption that certain third (i.e. non-EU) countries can be designated as safe for applicants seeking international protection, under specific conditions.

• State-Manufactured: Created by the State.

• Synthetic drug: refer to substances that are artificially modified from naturally occurring drugs and are capable of exhibiting both therapeutic and psychoactive effects.

• Vocational: (of an educational course or a qualification) providing knowledge and skills that prepare you for a particular job.

• Xenophobic: showing an extreme dislike or fear of people from foreign countries.