REVERT: Combating Xenophobia and Racism in Athens’ Public Transport

Athens is a dense urban area with a large population that relies heavily on buses and trolley buses for daily movement. Public transport hubs are one of the main spaces where local residents and diverse migrant communities meet on an everyday basis.

Several factors created the urgency for the project:

• Social factors: rising incidents of xenophobic violence on buses and trolley buses, and strained working conditions for drivers who were often the first to face discriminatory situations without specific preparation for them.
• Cultural factors: significant migrant and refugee populations, particularly in the years after the 2015 migration crisis, brought together communities with very different backgrounds in the shared space of public transport.
• Political factors: broader socio-political tensions in Greece and across Europe intensified prejudices, turning public transport hubs into flashpoints for discrimination.

Together, these dynamics made the public transport system a critical setting for anti-discrimination action.

• Prevent and combat xenophobic and racist incidents in public transport
• Equip bus and trolley drivers with skills in resilience, conflict management, and de-escalation
• Empower migrants and refugees by raising awareness of their rights and supporting reporting mechanisms
• Promote tolerance, mutual respect, and positive role modelling by drivers within the public transport ecosystem

The REVERT project developed and piloted a model to foster tolerance and resilience within Athens’ public transport system. It began with research that mapped patterns of racism and violence on buses and trolley buses, which then informed the design of a multi-level action plan.

Drivers took part in a train-the-trainers programme that equipped them to act as mediators and role models for passengers. Migrant groups were engaged through awareness-raising workshops, informal football matches with drivers, and direct outreach in camps and communities.

The project’s activities included:

• Focus groups and interviews with drivers, passengers, and migrants
• Training sessions on conflict resolution and the reporting of racist incidents
• A pilot implementation phase with awareness campaigns inside buses, using infographics and printed messages
• An attempt to establish an online observatory for reporting incidents, which faced limited uptake due to digital literacy barriers among drivers

A defining feature was the constant physical presence of the project team in the field, which helped build trust with both drivers and migrant communities despite initial scepticism.

A wide range of stakeholders took part in the project:

• Public transport drivers from OASA and OSY, Athens’ urban transport organisations
• Migrant and refugee groups
• Mental health and support organisations
• Passengers and citizens
• Local authorities and police

People in vulnerable situations, particularly migrants and refugees who use public transport daily, were involved not just as beneficiaries but as active participants in the project’s workshops and community-building activities.

The project applied a bottom-up participatory model that brought professional stakeholders and vulnerable communities together. Migrants and refugees were engaged directly as participants in trainings and informal events, which strengthened mutual understanding with the drivers they interact with daily.

The methodology combined several approaches:

• Participatory needs and issues analysis
• Focus groups, interviews, and awareness campaigns
• Community-building events such as football games between drivers and migrant groups
• Direct fieldwork and ethnographic presence to overcome mistrust

By grounding the work in real interactions and lived experience, this evidence-based approach highlighted systemic issues in discrimination and produced practical, context-sensitive tools for response.

• Drivers as active mediators and role models: rather than framing drivers only as employees affected by incidents, the project positioned them as key actors in preventing and de-escalating discriminatory situations.
• Citizen and driver joint activities: informal events such as football matches were used to build social trust across community lines, bringing groups together that would not usually meet on equal terms.
• Attempts at digital innovation: the project designed an online observatory for reporting incidents, though its uptake remained limited during the project’s lifetime.
• Adaptive delivery under COVID-19: disruptions from the pandemic pushed the project to shift emphasis towards direct community engagement, making creative use of the channels that remained available.

An online platform and database was designed to act as a racist incident observatory, giving drivers a structured way to record and monitor incidents. In practice, low digital literacy among drivers and limited stakeholder engagement meant this component remained underutilised, and it did not reach a stage where it could be transferred to other contexts.

• REVERT raised awareness and built capacity among Athens’ bus and trolley drivers to manage xenophobic incidents more effectively. Through targeted training and participatory activities, drivers reported feeling more confident and capable in addressing discriminatory behaviour, both professionally and in their personal interactions.
• Communication between drivers and migrant passengers improved, fostering a greater sense of security within the transport system.
• The project helped establish new channels of collaboration between public transport employees, migrant communities, and supporting organisations, strengthening trust across groups that had often been divided.
• At the same time, the initiative highlighted the persistent hostility and prejudice that migrants and refugees continue to face in the wider community, underlining that lasting change requires long-term, systemic efforts beyond the scope of a single project.

• Efforts to reduce racial discrimination need to be sustained over time; one-off interventions cannot influence entrenched social behaviours.
• Direct citizen engagement and the inclusion of vulnerable groups as active participants proved more effective than abstract awareness campaigns, since face-to-face interactions bridge divides better than messaging alone.
• Trust built through physical presence in the field and informal community events was critical in overcoming scepticism, particularly among bus drivers and migrant groups who initially resisted engagement.
• Institutional buy-in is essential: grassroots participation builds momentum, but long-term success depends on organisations like OASA integrating anti-discrimination measures into their standard training and operational culture.

• Only a small fraction of Athens’ more than 3,000 bus and trolley drivers were reached by the training programme, leaving the majority outside the project’s scope.
• The digital observatory for reporting racist incidents was hampered by low digital literacy among drivers and limited stakeholder engagement, meaning the technological component remained underdeveloped.
• The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted activities, delayed implementation, and forced adjustments to the originally planned methods.
• Scepticism persisted among some drivers and community members, with many questioning the priority given to anti-discrimination measures in the public transport sector.

The sustainability of REVERT rests on the informal continuation of its practices and the partial institutionalisation of its outputs. OASA’s commitment to integrate elements of the project’s training into the induction of new drivers offers a pathway for the approach to endure beyond the project’s official end. Drivers who took part in REVERT have also continued to apply its principles in their daily work, maintaining an impact at the individual level.

Beyond these measures, however, the project lacked a strong structural framework to ensure continuity, with no dedicated institutional mechanisms or resources secured for long-term implementation. REVERT left behind valuable tools, methods, and lessons, but its broader sustainability now depends on whether public transport institutions and local stakeholders continue to prioritise anti-discrimination and social cohesion in the years ahead.