Project type                                                             Social Rights

Promoter                                                                  City of Thessaloniki

Start date                                                                 2015

Website                                                                    www.react-thess.gr

The purpose of the REACT program is to ensure decent living conditions for beneficiaries of international refugee protection who have applied for asylum and relocation, with emphasis on vulnerable social groups. The program is based in a partnership between Thessaloniki Municipality and United Nations High Commission for Refugees, and counts on a multi-stakeholders platform, that include two other municipalities and some national and local organizations supporting migrants and refugees.

The program of refugee’s protection began in 2015 as a Working Group in the Action Plan and now is included as a best-practice in the URBACT Network Arrival Cities. One of the characteristics is the distribution of the refugee population in city areas that are not over-populated by refugees but are strategically located with easy access to services and facilities.

Apart from finding, identifying and creating reception and temporary accommodation facilities in rented apartments, host families and the hospitality of asylum seekers families, the program undertake the following tasks:

• Rent apartments, undertake utility bills and maintain leased apartments for the duration of the lease. Equip the apartments with furniture, electrical appliances and linen
•  Provision of psychosocial support, interpreting and legal services
• Visibility actions to raise awareness among the public to promote peaceful coexistence with neighbours and host communities
• Support refugee access to education and enrolment of children at schools
• Provision of priority items to the beneficiaries, such as clothes, shoes, medicines, etc.
• Provision of financial support to beneficiaries through the prepaid cards issued by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Directorate
• Other support services to refugees

Currently the program is focusing in the following issues: adaptation to changing needs of the refugee population, effective and efficient implementation of the program, creation of independent services that could be externally funded, ensure the community engagement, and provision of more tailored services.

The city of Thessaloniki is strongly committed with the refugees and the migrants, and there is a wider strategy to face all this issues. The Immigration Integration Council is the coordinating body of all the initiatives.

• 880 housing places
• 50 staff in the program
• 1 social worker per 10 families
• Social engagement and committment
• Multi-stakeholder approach
• International and national cooperation