N (28), Ethiopia

“I arrived one year ago in Greece. Here in Greece it is not possible to get easily a job. Sometimes you can find small jobs through friends. If you want to get a job through an agent you need to go every day for months in the early morning. If you are lucky, after a while you can get a housemaid job. I was working a job where we agreed that I look after the baby 4 hours a day. When I started the work, after a few weeks everything changed. I had to do everything, housekeeping, cleaning, ironing. I could not leave the house before finishing all the work. I had to stay until I finished, but was not paid for the extra work. The woman I worked for did not communicate with me, just do this, do that, following me around the house. After a while I wanted to leave the job, but I was not allowed. She said you need to stay until I find someone else. She did not pay me until she found someone else. She kept my money so I could not leave. Without payment I could not leave”.

“In the beginning the government gave us 150 Euro a month a free accommodation if we stay in the camp. But then it stopped. So we left. The accommodation is in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing. There is no life there. Only mountains and sea. No supermarket, no anything. There is no transportation. Sitting, eating, sitting eating only. We stayed for three months only. There is no nothing. The jobs are in the city. So how can you live there? Now I need to look for a new job. It is hard, very hard in the city without money”.