“Filoxenia”, the program to house asylum seekers at hotels throughout Greece, has concluded and contracts will not be renewed, the Migration & Asylum Ministry said on Thursday.
Currently there are only 130 asylum seekers housed at a total of three hotels in Greece and they will be transferred to existing housing within January, the ministry said.
A few hotels will remain active temporarily for another two months to house migrants from Greek island facilities who have been granted asylum. These latter will be included in the “Helios” integration program of the International Organization for Migration.
According to ministry data, the Filoxenia program involved 79 hotels in the past 14 months and at its height housed an average of 6,898 asylum seekers, with priority given to vulnerable groups from the Reception and Identification Centers on Greek islands (e.g. families with children or single-parent families).
