Greece detains ‘unaccompanied’ refugee children

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Greek government of breaching international law by arbitrarily detaining “unaccompanied” children for long periods in unhealthy conditions.

“The Greek authorities registered over 3,300 unaccompanied asylum-seeking and migrant children arriving in Greece in the first seven months of 2016,” said an HRW report on Friday. “Many of these children had fled violence and armed conflict in their home countries, including Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Others were escaping discrimination and crushing poverty.”

Given that such children are in Greece without parents or an adult responsible for their care, they are entitled to care and protection from the authorities, insisted HRW. “However, Greece has a chronic shortage of suitable accommodation and lacks a comprehensive protection system for child asylum seekers and migrants.”

The organisation condemned what is happening as the “prolonged arbitrary detention of children” which is “often in poor and degrading conditions, in protective custody at police stations, in pre-removal detention centres and in closed facilities on the Greek islands while they await transfer to a dedicated shelter facility.”

HRW said that the situation of the unaccompanied children in Greece is a violation of Greek law, as well as international law.