About
UNHCR’s Accommodation for Relocation Project responds to the request of the Greek Authorities to enhance the Greece’s reception capacity for relocation candidates and vulnerable asylum seekers, by establishing 20,000 accommodation places by the end of 2016. The type of accommodation provided by UNHCR can be in apartments, hotels or in other buildings, with a host family or in a site setting. All asylum seekers included in the Accommodation for Relocation Project receive food, hygiene items, basic social support, interpretation and transportation services. Medical, legal and psycho-social support are also provided as required. The project is supported by the European Commission.
Statistics
Types of Accommodation.
- Apartments (58%)
- Hotel/buildings (31%)
- UASC (3,5%)
- Relocation sites (5%)
- Host family programmes (2,5%)
Current Achievements
Locations
- Islands (4%)
- Attica region (64%)
- Central Greece (6%)
- Northern Greece (26%)
As of 31 October 2016
Factsheets
![Weekly Accommodation for Relocation Update, 26 December 2016](https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20161229025032im_/http://donors.unhcr.gr/relocation/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/AfRWeekly261216-600x500.jpg)
Weekly Accommodation for Relocation Update, 26 December 2016
![Weekly Accommodation for Relocation Update, 19 December 2016](https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20161229025032im_/http://donors.unhcr.gr/relocation/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/AfRWeekly191216-600x500.jpg)
Weekly Accommodation for Relocation Update, 19 December 2016
![Weekly Accommodation for Relocation Update, 12 December 2016](https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20161229025032im_/http://donors.unhcr.gr/relocation/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/AfRWeekly121216-600x500.jpg)
Weekly Accommodation for Relocation Update, 12 December 2016
![Weekly Accommodation for Relocation Update, 5 December 2016](https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20161229025032im_/http://donors.unhcr.gr/relocation/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/AfRweekly051216-600x500.jpg)
Weekly Accommodation for Relocation Update, 5 December 2016
Stories
![Mohamed Barri, looks out of the window of the apartment he shares with his mother, siblings and grandparents while they wait to be reunited with Mohamed's father in Germany. The Barri family received a visit from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi at the apartment in Athens they are staying in under Greece’s refugee accommodation programme. One family member was killed when their house and bakery business were bombed and they decided to flee Aleppo in February 2016 when another family member was kidnapped. Half of the family will be relocated to France and the others to Germany.](https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20161229025032im_/http://donors.unhcr.gr/relocation/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Capture19-540x368.jpg)
UNHCR’s accommodation scheme reaches goal of 20,000 places
![A Syrian refugee talks on his mobile phone, in the court-yard of the Rovies Hotel, where more than 40 refugees are temporarily staying until their relocation case is examined. ; In the small town of Rovies, located in the northwest of the island of Evia, a group of Syrian and Iraqi refugees have found shelter. Supported by the UNHCR and run by Solidarity Now, the small hotel is currently home to more than 40 refugees, all of them families who are candidates for the EU relocation scheme.
Everyone helps during their stay at the hotel. Old, young, everyone does his share. While the grown-ups cook, children attend english language classes. And during a break from class, a group of young boys helps move a pile of wood for the heating.
“I really enjoy the interaction I have with all the people” says the hotel owner, Andreas Vasileiou. “And I try to get them involved as well. It makes everyone feel like home, even for a while.”
The UNHCR Accommodation for Relocation project focuses on the creation of accommodation places in private apartments, hotels, other buildings and host families for relocation scheme candidates and vulnerable persons who apply for asylum in Greece. Through the project they receive support such as food, hygiene items, interpretation and accompaniment services, referral to
medical facilities, limited psychosocial and legal assistance.](https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20161229025032im_/http://donors.unhcr.gr/relocation/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/RF277815_AZ_20161014_87320_002-540x360.jpg)
Refugee families find a ray of hope at Greek hotel
![Ο Κheri Mando Sliman στέκεται στο δρόμο που συνδέει τη νέα του γειτονιά με τις όχθες της Λίμνης Βόλβης. © UNHCR/Χρήστος Τόλης](https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20161229025032im_/http://donors.unhcr.gr/relocation/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SUB7365-540x360.jpg)
UNHCR moves 1,100 out of tents, beating first snows of winter
![1](https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20161229025032im_/http://donors.unhcr.gr/relocation/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1-540x304.jpg)
The first three Syrian families move to apartments in Livadia
Media
Lagadikia, 17 June 2016 – Wafaa, a 33-year-old fashion designer and her three children, aged 3 to 15, fled their hometown of Aleppo, Syria, in February 2016. Wafaa had hoped to join her husband in Germany, who had left their war-torn home almost one year before. But, her family’s flight from war came to a halt, after countries along the Balkans route tightened their borders in March. The family spent six weeks sleeping in a small tent pitched in a petrol station near the Greek border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. They hoped to be allowed northwards. Wafaa was desperate to find somewhere secure for her children. Then, they moved to to the Lagadikia site near Thessaloniki in northern Greece.
Lagadikia, 8 May 2016 – The open accommodation site in Lagadikia is set up one kilometer south of a village with the same name in northern Greece. The Greek authorities with the support of the UNHCR manage and operate the site. Like thousands of other women who were forced to make the dangerous journey into Europe on their own, Nisrine Shiko, a 34-year-old Syrian refugee, travelled there with her five children, after her husband was killed by a bomb in Aleppo three years ago.