Humanitarian groups have accused the Greek government of fomenting a hunger crisis in refugee camps with conscious policy choices that have left thousands unable to access food.
They said that decisions aimed at deterring migrant flows had created an intolerable situation in which refugees have been left struggling to feed themselves for months.
Martha Roussou, of the International Rescue Committee, said it was unthinkable that people are going hungry in Greece. They have fallen through the cracks because of gaps in legislation and policy, because of no fault of their own. The IRC estimated that 40% of camp occupants had been denied basic means of subsistence because of the centre-right administration's decision to halt food provisions for those who are no longer in the asylum procedure.
There were a lot of children who were worryingly high. About 40% of the population in state-owned facilities are minors.
Teachers in local primary schools have reported children turning up to school without eating, without even a snack to see them through the day, the New York-based group said in a statement.
It revealed that 16,559 refugees were registered in camps on the Greek mainland, but new catering contracts had been agreed to provide food for only 10,213 people.
Aid organisations raised the alarm in October after a change of law resulted in vital services not only being cut for recognised refugees and rejected asylum seekers, but those who had failed to register applications, often because of chronic processing delays.
In an open letter addressed to Greek and EU officials, the 33 groups demanded that food be given to all camp residents regardless of their legal status. The European home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, said that Greek authorities had been repeatedly called on to make sure that all persons, particularly the vulnerable, receive food and other necessities.
Athens migration ministry strongly rejects any suggestion of a hunger crisis. Manos Logothetis, who oversees refugee reception, described the allegation as nonsense, saying it had been manufactured by NGOs.
If there are 10 refugees in this country who have been denied food, I will quit my job, he said. We are talking to the EU commissioner every week and we have reassured her that everyone who is supposed to receive it, including the vulnerable and incapacitated, is getting support. Under Greek and European law only people applying for international protection could be considered beneficiaries of material conditions of reception, and thus camp residents who do not fit that description have grown, despite Athens applauding for accelerating asylum claims.
Rights groups said excessive expectations of successful asylum seekers are partly to blame. Under legislation implemented last year, refugees are quickly left to fend for themselves, with benefits they once enjoyed, including cash assistance and food, suspended after 30 days.
Survival is often impossible in a society with little integration support, and most people have to return to camps after confronting bureaucratic hurdles, linguistic challenges and difficulties finding work.
Turkey has not helped a lot with its refusal to readmit rejected asylum seekers. A landmark deal between the EU and Ankara in 2016 aimed to send migrants who didn't win refugee status back to Turkey. Since March 2020, the country has refused to take any back when the president Recep Tayyip Erdo encouraged thousands of asylum seekers to enter the bloc via Greece, sparking a border crisis that further soured the Nato allies already strained ties.
With their claims rejected and without anywhere to go, they are forced to remain in camps.
Rights group say it is the Greek government's controversial decision to rule Turkey as a safe third country that has mostly accounted for the build-up of people no longer considered part of the asylum process. Since June, Afghans, Syrians, Somalis, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have been denied the right to seek refugee status, with Athens saying they should apply for refugee status in neighbouring Turkey.
It has created a situation where thousands have been left in legal limbo and in utter destitution without access to food and other basic rights in the camps, said Minos Mouzourakis, legal officer at Refugee Support Aegean, a migrant solidarity group in Athens. The hunger crisis in Greece is a direct result of the conscious policy choices of the government. He said it was imperative that Greek asylum officials, given Turkey's position, ended the impasse by examining the asylum requests of all five nationalities based on merit.
Nearly 90,000 refugees currently live in Greece and arrivals are much less than the height of the migrant crisis when close to 1 million Syrians crossed the country on their way to the EU. The administration of Kyriakos Mitsotakis has taken a much tougher approach to the issue than that of Alexis Tsipras, his leftist predecessor.
The government took over the running of all 24 camps on the mainland last year, which was previously administered by the International Migration Organization, and in a much-delayed process took over a EU-funded cash assistance programme that was previously run by the UN. The food crisis and handouts for refugees who were eligible for cash disbursements in camps and private housing were frozen for three months because of the chaotic transition.
Logothetis acknowledged the problem but insisted that payments were being rolled out last week. Roussou said at the IRC that the crisis is the result of mismanagement, disorganisation and not thinking policies through. We work in Afghanistan where there is hunger and it's so hard to resolve. It should be so easy to do here in Greece.