UNHCR maintained high media engagement year-round, but markedly increased its public advocacy from mid-summer onwards, as sea arrivals rose, conditions on the islands sharply deteriorated and policies and attitudes towards refugees and migrants in the country hardened.
Asylum and migration began to dominate news cycles in Greece and re-emerged as a global issue. Local communities began to react forcefully and vocally against asylum-seekers. In response, UNHCR scaled up its engagement in public fora but could not prevent the rise of xenophobic and racist language and actions from intensifying.
The UNHCR Representative engaged in prominent media interactions and briefings, further strengthening UNHCR’s authoritative voice and underpinning strategic messages, amplified in national and European debates. During a visit to Greece, the High Commissioner pressed the Greek Government to act urgently to address a worsening situation.
UNHCR generated strategic coverage through 68 press releases, briefing notes, statements and 24 web stories and op-eds, 493 social media posts, 5 videos, over 10 photo sets and a significant expansion of online audiences (117% on the national website, 27% on Facebook, 11% on twitter). Multimedia support to the flagship “Desperate Journeys” report and the HC’s November mission to Greece were notable examples.
For World Refugee Day (WRD), on the heels of the successful Refugee Food Festival, UNHCR organized a series of events under the banner “Cooking with Refugees.” The sequel festival was expanded and included Athens, Thessaloniki, Lesvos, and Ioannina, attracting significant media attention and public engagement.
Field offices organized cultural and community-based events, while in Athens UNHCR joined forces with NGOs, UN agencies and refugee communities to mark the day. The World Refugee Day campaign was adapted in Greek and the #WithRefugees call to action continued in 2019. In Northern Greece, UNHCR expanded its public engagement through high-profile events, including a roundtable discussion with authors at the International Book Fair, the Thessaloniki International Fair and the Thessaloniki Street Food Festival.
A regular radio programme organized by UNHCR in Thessaloniki continued in 2019 and was hosted by ERT3 state radio, while trainings in four cities within the Idomeni Charter initiative engaged more than 70 journalists.
Awareness and capacity building activities on education and inclusion of refugees in local communities were implemented in cooperation with UNHCR’s partner TENet for the fifth consecutive year. The project continued to support its extended network of schools and educators through interactive training to over 2,000 teachers and engaging more than 10,000 students, including refugees, through workshops at schools, artistic activities and 22 school festivals involving 192 schools in the country.
The 2019 National Student Contest coordinated by UNHCR reached over 2,000 students. The production in Greek of the UNHCR toolkit “Teaching about refugees” was printed and disseminated. The website article on the material’s full launching received the highest number of unique visitors in 2019, while the website’s menu with educational material is the page with the second highest number of views for the Greek website.
2019