Striving to Fill the Gaps: Relying on NGOs and Volunteers to Provide Services and Fulfill the Rights of Refugees in Greece ‌the Needs Are so Much Greater Than What We Can Provide�

Background In 2015, over one million refugees migrated into Europe with over 850,000 migrating from Turkey through Greece, nearly half escaping the war in Syria. Within the context of rising xenophobia and restrictive immigration policies, the European Union made an agreement to halt migrants entering Europe, requiring them to apply for asylum in Greece. Greece, with its own economic challenges, has been struggling to host them. NGOs and volunteers, international and Greek, have been critical in the response. They provided crucial services that would otherwise have been absent, including medical care, nutrition, legal aid, social welfare, and others. This research examined the challenges and lessons learned from relying on NGOs and volunteers striving to meet the basic needs of refugees and, using a human rights lens, aimed to answer the following questions: 1) What does it mean for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Greece to rely on NGOs and volunteers to provide services not available through the government? 2) What do NGO staff and volunteers feel are the biggest challenges in assisting refugees and asylum seekers to access these rights? 3) Given the confines of the situation, what are some good practices?

Methods This is an exploratory qualitative study using Braun and Clarke’s (2022) reflexive thematic analysis. To learn from the lived experiences of those working to support refugees and asylum seekers in Greece, 28 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with volunteers or NGO staff working with refugees and asylum seekers in Greece. Interviews were conducted from 2018-2022 in and around Athens, Thessaloniki, and Lesvos Island using purposive and snowball sampling for recruitment. Interviews were conducted in-person unless requested by participants to be remote by video conference. Data was supplemented with fieldnotes from visits to camps, community centers, and NGO offices.

Results Participants identified the lengthy and often arbitrary asylum process as a challenge where their assistance was severely limited. Access to housing, sanitation, food, healthcare (including reproductive healthcare), education, and psychosocial support were all gaps that NGOs and volunteers strived to fill but were unable to fully. Some good practices learned included using long-term versus short-term volunteers; requiring a longer commitment worked better, even when it meant less volunteers. Additionally, working with refugees rather than for refugees proved beneficial, hiring refugees when possible. This helped decrease some of the uneven power dynamics between refugees and staff/volunteers. Also, some staff and volunteers stopped working due to burnout.

Conclusions This research, and specifically using a human rights lens in the analysis, gives us a framework in which to advocate for changes to policies, whether on a NGO, government, or inter-governmental level. International and local NGOs often rely on research to inform programs and policies and to use as an advocacy tool for fundraising. Given the heavy reliance on NGOs and volunteers in Greece and other contexts, research to better understand the challenges and good practices also helps to improve the use of limited resources. And paying attention to staff/volunteer burnout may also better utilize an important resource.