AYS Special from Greece: Are you eligible to eat?
In a recent meeting between authorities, International Organizations and Civil Society Organizations it was announced that 60% of people living in camps do not receive food.
These people are also not eligible for the cash programme and are thus unable to purchase their own food.
They include recognised refugees, people who have received rejections, and people who have been unable to register. Children outnumber adult men and women in camps, they are a recognised vulnerable group under Article 20.3 of EU Directive 2011/95/EU , and are thus due additional protections.
Yet the Government continues to state that it is following the law while providing them with dangerously low levels of care.
In an interview with AYS on the eve of World Food Day, Dr Apostolos Veizis, Executive Director of Intersos in Greece, described this practice as a form of collective punishment.
Eligible for food means eligible to eat. What does this mean? How can it be possible? What does this say about EU principles and values? What does it say when a modern state cannot provide food?