I. Unaccompanied Child Migrants and Asylum Seekers in Greece

By the end of 2008, approximately 1,000 separated and unaccompanied children-that is, children separated from their parents or customary caregiver but not necessarily from other adult relatives, and children unaccompanied by a relative or another adult customarily or legally responsible for their care-will have entered Greece during the year. A few will have applied for asylum, most will not. Many will come into contact with the state by being caught by the police and subsequently served with a deportation order. For the purposes of this report, we refer to all of them as unaccompanied children.

The figure of 1,000 is an estimate based on a mix of sources-UNHCR, various Greek government departments and service-providing NGOs.[7] Human Rights Watch was unable to obtain a definitive official figure on the number of unaccompanied children in Greece, and authorities do not publish a break-down by age of the number of persons who are caught in Greece without legal status.[8] Although a migrant apprehended by the police is typically registered, the police also often fail to identify correctly whether a person is a child and if so whether unaccompanied.

What is striking is that official sources contradict themselves as well as each other-and no single body appears to be responsible for maintaining a clear overview tracking children in need of protection. The fact that the authorities have no clear idea how many unaccompanied asylum-seeking or migrant children have come into contact with official bodies is highly indicative of the subject of this report: the fundamental, systemic failure of the Greek authorities to provide protection to these particularly vulnerable and at risk young people.

Flight from Poverty, Persecution, Exploitation and Discrimination

Government sources and NGOs generally agree that most unaccompanied children currently coming into Greece are from Afghanistan, followed by countries including Somalia or Iraq-each heavily affected by armed conflict-and many are from other countries. However, given the lack of break-down by age of official figures on migration, there remains uncertainty from which countries unaccompanied children originate.

Of the 53 unaccompanied children Human Rights Watch interviewed (see Methodology and Scope, above) most were from Afghanistan, with a majority belonging to the Hazara ethnic group. Many were from Somalia, some from Iraq, but others were from Congo-Brazzaville, Nigeria, the Philippines and Pakistan. The majority were boys aged 15 to 17.

Many Afghan children told similar stories and motivations behind their journeys to Greece. A majority left Afghanistan in the 1990s at young ages, mainly for Iran. Many had only scant memories of their country, town or village. Sometimes children left jointly with their families, but a considerable number left Afghanistan on their own. Some did not know the exact circumstances behind their families' departure; others recounted details of violence, drought, or persecution by the Taliban.

Afghan children who had initially settled in Iran started working as early as age 10 to support themselves or their families, many employed in sweatshops or on construction sites and performing hazardous labor. Several children told Human Rights Watch that they suffered from chronic health problems as a result of such work at a young age. A vast majority said they had left Iran because the Iranian government started deporting Afghans who didn't have regular status.[9]

Children who left Afghanistan or one of the refugee camps in Pakistan in more recent years spoke of a variety of push factors behind their departure. Many shared stories of lawless areas run by local warlords. Children fled for many reasons-because they were targeted for sexual abuse, religious views, political affiliation with the Taliban, or simply for befriending the daughter of a local strongman. One child told us he left because "his father did not behave well" and another was orphaned at a young age. All shared a history of child labor; hardly any were able to read or write, and many had gone to school for only two or three years before they took up work. Two Afghan siblings came to be reunited with their mother in another EU country.

We did not interview sufficient numbers of children from other nationalities to draw general conclusions about the reasons for their departure. Several Somali children, however, told us they were from Mogadishu and fled violence and fighting. One African boy said he was persecuted after he tried to seek justice for the killing of his politically active family. A boy from Iraq fled after his entire family was killed and he became the target of insurgents.

Human Rights Watch did not set out to research child trafficking and no research on contemporary child trafficking has, to our knowledge, been carried out by other organizations.[10] However, some of the children we interviewed appeared to have been trafficked. Furthermore, unaccompanied children who have made it to Greece risk falling into the hands of trafficking gangs operating in the country, including for the purpose of labor exploitation (see chapter VII for a fuller discussion). Unaccompanied girls, who face particular risks, remain largely invisible, with no specialized care center existing for them.

In this report Human Rights Watch does not assess whether the children we spoke to have a case for being granted asylum. Some, perhaps many, undoubtedly do. The focus of the report is on how the protection and asylum regimes in Greece fail all of them-asylum seekers and migrants alike.   

A History of Protection Failure

Unaccompanied migrant and refugee children coming to Greece is not a new phenomenon. Especially with the collapse of the former Yugoslavia and the crisis that ensued in Albania in the 1990s, Greece has for over a decade been faced with the challenge of having hundreds of unaccompanied children from third countries on its territory. The presence of Albanian children, often unaccompanied and from Albania's Roma ethnic minority, manifested itself visibly in the early 1990s. Many of these children were living on the streets-begging, washing car windows at traffic lights, selling minor items, or engaging in petty criminality. Many were believed to have been trafficked and some reportedly ended up being sexually exploited.

As now, the total number of foreign children in Greece was not known and the government did not keep track of them. A UNICEF sponsored study in 2000 estimated that there were about 5,800 street children in the country, a majority Albanian, but more than 14 percent were estimated to be from Iraq, Pakistan, and of Kurdish origin.[11]

The government of Greece reacted to the presence of these children with a law and order approach, euphemistically entitled "Protection and Social Care for Street Children," under which children were arrested and some were charged with begging, a criminal offense.[12] Following arrest, children were taken to large-scale care institutions, one of them the Aghia Varvara center in Athens, or were deported, sometimes to be re-trafficked.[13]

Approximately 500 children who had been arrested by the police and taken to the "Aghia Varvara" care center between 1998 and 2002 went missing from the institution over time, and no one knows where they went.[14] Their gradual departure did not ring alarm bells in Greece until the Albanian media published a story.[15] By the time the Greek Ombudsman investigated the case, the management of the "Protection and Social Care for Street Children" program lacked institutional leadership and the "Aghia Varvara" center had staff who were insufficient in numbers and untrained.[16] Despite the Ombudsman's investigation, no one was held accountablefor the grave neglect of children in state care.

The Greek government's failure to adequately protect children from third countries has not gone unnoticed by international human rights bodies. In 2002, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed its concerns about insufficient attention paid to the situation of unaccompanied migrant and asylum-seeking children, and it called on Greece to develop mechanisms to attend to these children's specific needs.[17]In 2004, the United Nations Human Rights Committee noted an "absence of child welfare protection." It urged Greece to protect unaccompanied foreign children and to refrain from releasing them without any care arrangements.[18] In 2005, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography expressed concern about the absence of an institutionalized child protection system and the lack of adequate shelters for unaccompanied children, which exposes children to trafficking and other risks.[19]

UNHCR and Greek institutions have spoken out about specific aspects of the protection of unaccompanied migrant and refugee children. A UNHCR-sponsored report about reception conditions for vulnerable groups in 2004 called on the government to enhance reception conditions, to refrain from detaining children, and to expand access to services for children who have not asked for asylum.[20]

In 2005, the Greek Ombudsman published a special report about the detention and deportation of migrant children. It urged the government to refrain from such practices and to replace deportation procedures with repatriations that respect children'srights. The government was further called upon to identify, register, and provide adequate care to all unaccompanied children in the country.[21]

Jointly with the UNHCR, the Ombudsman also issued in 2005 a comprehensive set of guidelines for the treatment of unaccompanied children seeking asylum.[22] The Greek Council for Refugees published a Plan of Action in 2006.[23] The Greek National Commission for Human Rights, in early 2007, called on the government to refrain from detaining children, to systematically register, identify, and represent children, to adopt a formal age assessment procedure, and to provide adequate accommodation.[24]

Greek Law and the Protection System for Unaccompanied Children

Greek legislation to a certain extent recognizes the government's obligations to care for and protect unaccompanied migrant children.

The most recent Greek asylum laws define an unaccompanied child as a person below the age of 18 without an adult customarily or legally responsible for his or her care[25] and it makes representation of all unaccompanied children by a guardian mandatory, regardless of whether the child has asked for asylum.[26] According to the law, an unaccompanied child's asylum claim is to be assessed by a competent official, on the basis of up-to-date and precise information, and after an objective and impartial examination, taking into account child-specific forms of persecution.[27] In reality, however, asylum applications are routinely rejected and remain without a fair and full assessment (see chapter IV).

There is, furthermore, a lack of legal protection for unaccompanied children who do not seek asylum, including those who are prevented from accessing asylum procedures because of existing obstacles. Although these children are by law represented by a (temporary) guardian, their irregular status as migrants who illegally entered the country remains unchanged. As such, they are subject to arrest, detention, and deportation.[28]

Institutional Responsibilities

Responsibility for unaccompanied refugee and migrant children is divided among various government entities.

The police are responsible for virtually all aspects of immigration and asylum-including the adjudication of asylum claims at first instance and the deportation of migrants. The system lacks independent oversight and an unaccompanied child may be in contact only with the police from the point of arrival until his or her deportation.

The Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity (Ministry of Health) is responsible for providing accommodation, access to medical services (including for victims of abuse or armed conflict), and an adequate standard of living for asylum seekers.[29] It supports regional social services as well as NGOs in providing such services.

Juvenile prosecutors or prosecutors of first-instance courts act as temporary guardians for all unaccompanied children, regardless of whether they apply for asylum.[30]

There are a number of other institutions that have roles in monitoring the protection of children's rights in Greece. These do not have operational responsibilities within the protection or immigration regimes, but can act as watchdogs on behalf of children within wider sets of responsibilities for monitoring the implementation of human rights measures: these include the Greek Ombudsman, entrusted to protect the rights of citizens and non-citizens, with a separate department on children's rights,[31] and the Greek National Commission for Human Rights, with a mandate to monitor the protection of human rights, raise public awareness, and advise the Greek government on human rights protection.[32]

Furthermore, a number of NGOs, such as the Greek Council for Refugees, the Ecumenical Refugee Program, the Hellenic Red Cross, and ARSIS, offer government funded services, including legal advice to asylum seekers or assistance to access social services for unaccompanied children and other groups. Generally, however, these organizations are under-resourced and access to their services outside of Athens is limited.

Despite consistent criticism of Greece's policies and calls for improvements in its child protection system, Human Rights Watch's research for this report found that the protection of unaccompanied children is dysfunctional and children continue to be subjected to violence and abuse. Reasonable, if limited, laws are not implemented. Neither the police nor other authorities are making meaningful efforts to give effect to legal obligations to ensure that children receive the level of protection to which they are entitled. At various points within the system, children are not merely the victims of measures that violate their rights by omission but are being subjected to acts of violence and brutality by persons supposed to be responsible for their welfare. Past failures have not led to much needed improvements of the child protection system.