In August, the European Commission announced a 209 million euro ($245 million) emergency support package to provide cash assistance and rental housing for refugees in Greece. Pegged as a "game changer" by the Commission’s head of humanitarian aid, Christos Stylianides, the Emergency Support to Integration and Accommodation package came in part as a response to strong criticism over living conditions in Greek refugee camps.

"The aim of these new projects is to get refugees out of the camps and into everyday accommodation, and help them have more secure and normal lives," Stylianides said at the time.

With ESTIA — "home" in Greek — the EU's humanitarian arm intended to mainstream its funding into core services that will be transferred to local authorities at the end of this year. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was chosen as the sole contractor, with local and international organizations implementing the programs on the ground.

Cash assistance and alternatives to camp-based accommodation are increasingly seen as affording refugees greater dignity and better opportunities for integration, and ESTIA has done well in meeting its targets. As of November 2017, 36,135 households were receiving cash assistance — representing all eligible asylum seekers and refugees, according to UNHCR — and 18,927 accommodation places had been created, of the 22,000 targeted.

But while ESTIA-funded programs have improved the lives of their beneficiaries significantly, many asylum seekers are still being left out due to persistent backlogs that are hampering its sustainability, and stringent eligibility criteria that fail to accommodate the specificities of the refugee population in Greece, several civil society organizations told Devex.

Read the full article about the future of Greece's refugee program by Flavie Halais at Devex International Development.