Interview: Portugal's "Airbnb for asylum seekers" helps them find support

A scheme likened to "Airbnb for asylum seekers," which was founded in Germany and spread to countries including Portugal, was useful to help asylum seekers to find support, volunteers have said.

London-born Tola Akindipe, 26, who used to work for the Red Cross in Germany, and his colleagues realized that accommodation was poor for refugees in Portugal and decided to do something to address the issue.

Housing is the core of the program Refugees Welcome Portugal, which was set up in September 2015 to match hosts and refugees.

Asylum seekers can get in touch via text message, email or by registering on the website.

"It's really informal, but it has been really successful," Akindipe said in a recent interview, adding that so far, Refugees Welcome International had managed to link over 580 people.

So far, around 160 refugees have arrived in Portugal under the EU relocation plan.

While refugees under this program receive help from the government, including housing, education and benefits, Refugees Welcome Portugal helps asylum seekers who have already been in Portugal for a while, and who have no or little support.

Some of the refugees who contacted the platform already have housing, but need a mentor to help them write their CV, learn Portuguese, or even to find out where the local supermarket or hospital is. People offering to help are from all walks of life, Akindipe explained.

"It's just driven from a desire to help, from people of all walks of life who want to volunteer with us," he said, adding that they have been contacted by everyone from students to pensioners, as well as landlords who offer their homes free of charge and even people who are currently unemployed.

Portugal's attitude toward refugees is being set as an example as a country which others should follow. Human Rights Watch wrote earlier this month that, while the country is faced with obstacles -- like a lack of hotspots where asylum seekers are screened in Greece and Italy -- Portugal's move is the "kind of leadership needed to make relocation work."

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa has offered to take up to 10,000 asylum seekers and has said he is against "a Europe that closes its borders."

Though Akindipe is happy about the current Socialist government's stance on refugees, he stressed the need for collaboration in order to combat the crisis.

"There is a lack of togetherness (in Portugal) which you see in Germany and other countries. You have all these parallel programs which undermines their core values, when working in the third sector is about togetherness and finding ways to help people."

"If governments and associations and private initiatives put aside personality politics and work together, it will be much easier to help people," he added.

The International Organization for Migration has pointed out that as of March this year, about 130,000 migrants and refugees had crossed the Mediterranean to reach Europe. Endit