Conclusions on the help provided by NGOs 

Those organizations that receive public funding to house undocumented migrants are usually only allowed to use the money for helping rejected asylum seekers, thus excluding people who came to a country on their own account and never asked for asylum. It sometimes happens that access conditions specified by the funding municipalities are so strict that all the spaces available cannot be filled.

However most NGOs that provide accommodation are unable to cope with the great quantity of demands they receive. Indeed a lot of discouragement was felt among the interviewed organizations that continue doing what their finances enable them to do as well as campaign work with the hope that the political climate will change and more just social and immigration policies will be passed. They also work on establishing relations with homeless shelters in order to widen undocumented migrants’ housing possibilities, and try to improve existing relationships between private owners and tenants.

Some refugee organizations that help people in their asylum procedure also sometimes end up helping rejected asylum seekers who don’t leave their accommodation after having been rejected. Organizations helping undocumented migrants often face threats from the authorities due to their ‘illegal’ help.

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