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April 23, 2019

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New arrivals force eviction of refugees

Abdullah Ahmadi, an Afghan living with his wife and five children in an apartment in the Athens suburbs allocated by the United Nations refugee agency, is about to lose his home for the past three years.

“In two months I have to leave. I have been looking for work in Greece and have only found random jobs that are not enough to support my family,” says Ahmadi, who spent a year on the island of Lesbos before being able to reach the Greek capital.

“I do not know how I’m going to get along, and I’m scared that I will end up on the street with my family,” he says, distraught.

Thousands of refugees like Ahmadi are facing possible eviction from EU-paid homes in Greece this year as more await to take their place to manage a slow but steady flow of new arrivals from Turkey, support groups have warned.

Nearly 6,800 people currently hosted in rooms and flats around the country under a program funded by the European Union and run by UNHCR in cooperation with local non-governmental groups could be affected.

Ahmadi took part in a demonstration last week by refugees in central Athens to protest against the evictions, supported by far-left activists, NGO workers and students.

Following a controversial EU deal with Turkey in 2016, the flow of migrants and refugees to Greece has slowed to a few dozen daily. But even these numbers are enough to overwhelm limited facilities on several Aegean islands opposite Turkey, which are already crammed many times over their nominal capacity.

With nearly 9,000 arrivals since the start of this year, the situation on the islands is explosive and the ministry of migration is desperate to remove as many people from camps as possible.




 

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