Date: Thursday, 24 April 2025
Father Solomon embraces tightly his youngest son, Yoftahie, who has just landed to Athens with his mother and siblings under the gaze of female members of the Eritrean Orthodox congregation in Greece, who joined Father Solomon welcoming his family at the International Airport of Athens.
At the arrivals gate of “Eleftherios Venizelos” International Airport in Athens, the Solomon family embraces tightly. After 12 long years of separation, they are finally reunited. Solomon Mesein, a priest and symbolic figure for the Eritrean Orthodox congregation in Greece, has just welcomed his wife and three children to their new home.
“We could not believe we had finally arrived in Greece. Even when the pilot announced our landing, it still felt unreal”, recalls 23-year-old Naemi, the eldest daughter of Father Solomon, now sitting beside him in their living room in Athens. Solomon was recognized as a refugee in Greece in 2011 and had been tirelessly working ever since to bring his loved ones to Athens through the family reunification procedure provided by the Greek law.
When the Solomon family fled Eritrea due to persecution, Naemi was seven years old, her brother Bruck four, and little Yoftahie just 10 months old. In search of safety, the family had to separate - Father Solomon found refuge in Greece while his wife and children settled in Uganda. The children have few memories of their escape out of Eritrea but they remember growing up seeing their father only through video calls, sending him photos from milestones he had missed –school grades, church choirs, graduations.
“I wanted to bring my family here in a safe and legal way. I didn’t want them to risk their lives crossing the sea,” explains Father Solomon. Over the years, he heard countless tragic stories of friends and relatives who didn’t survive the journey to Europe. This only strengthened his resolve to endure every challenge in his long pursuit of reunification.
His efforts were supported by the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR), which provides legal aid for refugee family reunification in partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
“It took 12 years and two court decisions to succeed, because the family was asked to do the impossible,”, explains Eleni Kagiou, GCR’s lawyer who, along with lawyer Chara Katsigianni, handled the case. “They were asked to provide documents they simply couldn’t obtain – especially since Father Solomon’s wife and children were no longer in their country of origin, Eritrea. This demand went against the basic legal principle that the impossible cannot be required”, adds Eleni.
Family reunification is based on the fundamental human right to family life and is recognized as a right for recognized refugees under both national and European law. However, many face years of delay due to complex procedures, requirements for documents that are simply unattainable, and the absence of Greek consulates in countries where the family members of refugees reside.
The specialized support provided by GCR and UNHCR has been essential for helping refugee families overcome these hurdles. But this work is now at risk. UNHCR, like many humanitarian organizations, is facing a serious funding crisis, and the future of critical programmes—like the legal aid project that reunited the Solomons—is uncertain. “If these services didn’t exist, so many families would remain apart, or take dangerous routes just to be together,” says Eleni. “Legal assistance is not a luxury—it’s a lifeline.”
Back in the Solomons’ living room in central Athens, a picture of the Virgin Mary holding the newborn Christ watches over the family. Their faith helped them endure each setback on the long road to reunification. Now they spend hours on the couch laughing, talking late into the night, and remembering the years apart. “We can’t bring back the 12 years we lost,” says Naemi. “I had to grow up fast, carrying the weight of being strong for my mom and dad. Now I’m finally starting to feel like a child again”.
Naemi had to interrupt the nursing studies she had started in Uganda, but she has faith in the future she is now rebuilding in Greece. She is learning Greek and adjusting to her new life, having already found a job in the tourism industry, all while enjoying the “unconditional love” that, as she says, a family can offer. “Reunification of families is not just about winning a case or bringing a family together. It’s about giving people hope,” she stresses.
Hope Away From Home: Protection and Hope for People Seeking Safety
UNHCR’s Hope Away from Home campaign in Greece advocates for the protection of the right to family life for those who have sought safety in the country. A core priority of the campaign is to expand access to family reunification as a safe and legal pathway for refugees separated from their loved ones.
The legal assistance programme for refugee family reunification, implemented by the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) in partnership with UNHCR, has supported 290 family reunification cases between 2021 and 2024. During this period, 145 people were successfully reunited with their families in Greece - often after years of uncertainty, waiting and hardship. These reunifications represent more than legal victories; they are moments of restored dignity and hope.
