On Monday 2 April, the EU announced further funding of €180 million for aid projects and programmes to improve the living conditions and autonomy of refugees in Greece. European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides met Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens that same day.
Funding will be used to scale up the Emergency Support to Integration and Accommodation (ESTIA) programme, launched in July 2017 in cooperation with the HCR, with an initial budget of €151 million to help refugees and their families to rent accommodation in towns and to allow refugees to meet their basic needs with cash assistance (see EUROPE 11838).
With these new resources, the ESTIA programme will be able to create 27,000 places in urban settings by the end of 2018. Most rented apartments will be in cities and towns on the Greek mainland while up to 2,000 places will be located on the Greek islands. Several municipalities in Greece are also part of the scheme.
The cash assistance programme, allowing refugees and asylum seekers to receive a pre-defined monthly cash allocation through a dedicated card, should benefit 45,000 people by mid 2018.
Until now, the ESTIA programme has provided for the creation of over 23,000 accommodation places and for cash assistance to be given to over 41,000 refugees and asylum seekers. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)