Amid the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, recognised refugees including people with chronic and complex medical conditions, pregnant women, the elderly and children, are being evicted from their homes to sleep out in the streets of Athens without access to basic services including healthcare, protection and shelter. At national level the Ministry of Migration and Asylum (MoMA) has pledged to evict more than 11,000 recognised refugees from their accommodation, including camps, apartments and hotels. This process has already begun despite the blatant inhumane and potentially deadly effects on the most vulnerable.

MSF is witnessing some of its most vulnerable patients, including heavily pregnant women and children, people with chronic diseases and survivors of torture, being thrown out of their accommodation and left without shelter. Hundreds of refugees have already been left in the streets, leaving many people with severe medical needs even more vulnerable to their condition. At the beginning of June an extremely vulnerable MSF patient passed away – an indirect cause of eviction – and more recently a child with cancer has been urgently hospitalised. This is happening in the midst of a global pandemic and while neighboring countries in the region, Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia, are seeing a worrying increase of COVID-19 cases.