The UN refugee agency and the EU’s aid department have been accused by other aid groups of mismanaging a multimillion-pound fund earmarked for the most vulnerable refugees in Europe, leaving thousands sleeping in freezing conditions in Greece.



The Greek government, which has ultimate jurisdiction over camp activities, has also been criticised for failing to use nearly €90m (£75m) of separate EU funding to adequately improve conditions at the camps before the onset of winter. No single actor has overall control of all funding and management decisions in the camps, allowing most parties to distance themselves from blame.

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The EU aid department, known as Echo, has given UNHCR more than €14m since April to help prepare roughly 50 refugee camps for the winter in Greece, where an estimated 50,000 mainly Syrian refugees have been stranded since the adoption of new European migration policies in March. A further €24m has been given to UNHCR for other projects.

Both organisations stand accused by other aid groups of squandering this money, after failing to properly “winterise” or evacuate dozens of camps before snow fell in Greece earlier in December.

In addition to providing warmer bedding and clothes, UNHCR was expected to use this money to move people from tents to heated containers or formal housing; heat warehouses where other refugees are living; provide a consistent supply of hot water; and install insulated flooring for anyone still left in tents.

Months after the funds were dispersed, roughly half of those living in camps had yet to be transferred to formal housing by the onset of winter. Of the 45 camps that were still active at the start of the month, the Guardian visited or was made aware of at least 15 camps that had yet to be properly adapted by the time snow fell in northern Greece at the start of December. UNHCR admitted it was itself aware of only eight camps where all the residents have been moved out of tents and into prefabricated containers.

In a recent UNHCR video, promoted by Echo, the two institutions hailed the success of their winterisation work. In early December, the EU also said that Greece was safe enough to return refugees there from other European countries.

But refugees and independent aid workers say Echo and UNHCR had initially ignored the gravity of the situation. The head of Medécins Sans Frontières in Greece, Loic Jaeger, described the situation as a failure.

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“We are outraged about the positive communications [from UNHCR and the EU] that are completely disconnected with reality,” said Jaeger, speaking before UNHCR began to admit flaws in the process on 9 December.

Jaeger said: “Our feeling is that there is a willingness now, led by the fact that there is a massive amount of money [allocated for winterisation], to try to present the situation as if it is OK. But it is not. On the islands we are still not even starting to winterise. In some places it’s working quite well, but in northern Greece you still have people sleeping in tents in the snow.”

Jaeger added: “What is being done with all this money? Who is checking? Where is the report from the EU or UNHCR assessing what is still to be done? Where is the transparency? There is a discrepancy between what is claimed and what is the reality.”

At three camps visited by the Guardian, three refugees with newborn babies condemned the freezing conditions their children had been left in. “It’s too cold here for a baby,” said Sonya, a 17-year-old Syrian Kurd, whose first child was born prematurely in the week that snow fell in Thessaloniki.

Asked by the Guardian, both UNHCR and the EU released a breakdown of their spending on winterisation and other areas. More than 21,000 people have been placed in formal housing, the data shows – but an estimated 20,000 remained in camps in early December. Officials from both institutions partly blamed the cash-strapped Greek government for the failure to properly accommodate the refugees, who were left stranded on Greek territory by other EU countries in March.

In response, Greece’s migration ministry said that while it was ultimately responsible for the camps, it was hamstrung by a lack of independent funding. EU funds are dispersed to the Greek army and other Greek institutions – and to UNHCR and 13 other large international agencies and charities – rather than the migration ministry itself.

“We don’t have funds on our own,” said Nicholas Connolly Rangos, the ministry’s regional coordinator for northern Greece. “All we can do is push and push our Echo partners, UNHCR, and the big NGOs … [who] cannot overcome their internal processes to provide assistance sooner.”

A spokesman for Echo highlighted how other wings of the EU have provided nearly €800m directly to Greek institutions, to help them respond to the refugee crisis. A breakdown of that spending shows that the EU has sent nearly €90m to Greek institutions to improve the camps – though none of it was specifically allocated for winterisation, unlike the €14m allocated to UNHCR.

The ongoing blame game highlights the level of disorganisation across the entire response to the Greek refugee crisis. No single actor has overall control of all funding and management decisions in the camps.

Throughout months of research in several sites across Greece, the Guardian has found that the EU, UNHCR, major NGOs, the Greek government and the Greek army all use the the absence of a clear chain of command to absolve themselves of responsibility for the dysfunctional system.

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Additionally, the Guardian has found that Echo dispersed nearly €190m to a group of major UN agencies and charities working in Greek refugee camps – without ensuring that the the aid would be spread equally across the camps. Only a few camps have designated funding for the full range of services offered by the charities.

Guardian analysis of data provided by the EU shows that 19 camps receive no designated EU funding for water-related infrastructure such as toilets and showers; another 19 have no designated funding for healthcare; 10 receive no designated funding for psycho-social care; 26 receive no designated funding for child protection or child-friendly spaces; 25 receive no funding for female friendly spaces. Asked to comment on this analysis, the EU did not dispute the figures.

Finally, grassroots groups claim that the recipients of this EU funding are often slow to spend it, forcing smaller volunteer-led groups to use their weaker resources to fill in the gaps. The Guardian has found evidence that in at least nine camps, grassroots groups have spent hundreds of thousands of euros on projects that should have been paid for with the funding supplied by the EU to the major charities.

In the most telling example, a grassroots US-based charity claims it was left to pay more than €100,000 to winterise the camp of Oinofyta, in southern Greece. Lisa Campbell, the co-founder of Do Your Part, said: “Since no one else had any money, Do Your Part, a very small American organisation, is spending €115,000 so that refugees don’t have to stay outside during winter.”

In northern Greece, the small charity RefuAid wants to set up long-term integration projects – but says it has been forced to spend most of its budget on short-term projects because larger NGOs have failed to use the EU funding that had been designated for that purpose.

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“Our organisation is about preparing for the long term, but instead we’re spending all our money on the short term because we’re having to step in for the larger NGOs,” said Anna Jones, RefuAid’s co-founder. “At least half our funding has been spent on short-term projects – around £20,000-25,000 – because larger organisations are not stepping up.”

The EU denies that its money is being badly spent, and says it is doing all it can to monitor where its money goes. A spokesman said its partners were subject to four layers of control and that its funding was “the most thoroughly monitored and controlled of all international aid donated for the refugee crisis in Greece”.

In response to questions about the winterisation process, UNHCR said: “As we are out there on the refugee sites every day, we understand and share your analysis that there are gaps. Just the other day, we brought 11 new-born babies out of tents into hotels because their tents had not been replaced by other accommodation. The [Greek migration] ministry had asked us to trouble-shoot and step in on that one. And we are seeing the consequences of the delays in other areas. Humanitarian actors, including us and the volunteers, are in facing serious challenges and trying to close the gaps.”