Of all the daily challenges faced by asylum seekers and migrants living in Greece, legal aid is one of the most immediate and pressing. The Greek Asylum Service is overstretched. With no state funded legal aid scheme for asylum seekers and a handful of non-profits providing pro-bono legal help, asylum seekers are left in limbo with little to no support. 

Northern Greece is no exception. With roughly 30,000 asylum seekers stranded in the region, especially in and around Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece . The area is facing a significant structural shortage of legal assistance. The asylum procedure being extremely complex, this lack of legal aid is detrimental to the exercise of the right to asylum.