He keeps a ledger of the families he helps -- they total more than 100.
"It touches me when I see people suffering in Syria and they run away to get some dream in Greece, and I see all the suffering in Greece," he said.
Hundreds of Greek doctors have left the country for northern Europe where they have more security and more pay. It's a different Greece from the one that
provided him freedom 28 years ago.
"I feel pain, not only for Syria as my country, but for Greeks. I am full of the old photo of Greece. The oldest civilization, the first democracy in the
world, and now it's getting to be the worst. The lowest situation."
He held his hand out and let it drop.
"Down, down to the hell," he said.
***
According to Muhammadi Yonous, president the Greek Forum of Refugees, there has never been a just asylum system in the country. Lacking federal support,
the organization holds seminars and cultural events to help integrate refugees into the community.
"What we are doing, it is what the government should be doing, but they don't do it," he said.
"Most of [Golden Dawn sympathizers], they think all the problems here it is because of migrants. It is very horrible."
While teaching a Greek language class to women and children refugees last year, 15 supporters of the Golden Dawn, men with chains and irons, broke into the
classroom.
"They started shouting, 'go out, we don't want you.'"
They beat him and left. The worst part, he said, was going to the police who told him if he complained again, he'd be put in a detention center.
"Even the European Union, they don't know what to do with the problems here in Greece."
According to the Ministry of Public Order's website, 1,261 Afghans and 1,276 Syrians have been arrested this year and put in detention centers. But
thousands are also being kept in detention facilities at police departments.
Amnesty International reported
violations of international law in the country's treatment of refugees and migrants as long ago as 2011.
"I can't even describe," the detention centers, said Kleio Nikolopoulou, a lawyer at the Greek Council for Refugees. "It is absolutely horrific."
***
Konstantin Ibrahim brought his wife, three children, and his brother's son from their small town in the north of Syria to Greece last year.
"When we reached here, we were shocked," he said.
They've been living in a small flat for months. The walls are covered in crucifixes and pictures of Jesus. There is a print of DaVinci's Last Supper over a
doorway. They aren't Christians, and this isn't their home, but it's what they have.
They spent 38 hours on a rubber boat crossing from Izmir to Lesbos, the Greek Island most refugees come through. He paid 12,000 Euros in total for the
journey -- 2,000 per head.
The family doesn't travel farther than a mile away from the flat for fear of being reported or attacked. Six months ago, Ibrahim was given papers to stay
in the country for one month. If he's caught now, he'll likely spend a year and a half in a detention center.