IV. Unaccompanied Children Seeking Asylum

As described in chapter II, when police officers first apprehend an unaccompanied child they are supposed to inform them of their right to claim asylum and ensure representation by a competent guardian. Unaccompanied children who do not ask for asylum have no regular status in Greece; nor do those who have had their asylum application rejected or have otherwise fallen out of the asylum procedure. Children who lack regular status can be detained and deported under the same procedures as adult migrants. NGOs furthermore told Human Rights Watch that unaccompanied children without regularized status cannot access all care centers and are often left to fend for themselves. In contrast, those who do apply for asylum are entitled to a temporary permission to stay until their claim is adjudicated. This permission to stay-commonly referred to as the "red card"-protects them from deportation. Unaccompanied children who seek asylum are also more likely to access care centers (see chapter VI).

Unaccompanied children aged 14 and above may file an asylum application if deemed mature enough by the competent police official to comprehend the meaning of such an action. Children below age 14 may only submit an asylum application through their legal representative. In practice, these children may be barred from seeking asylum as they are often unaware of who their guardian is (see also chapter II about the guardianship system).[111]

However, very few unaccompanied children actually do apply for asylum, even if they have a well-founded fear of persecution. Many children interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they do not want to apply for asylum, including because they have experienced ill-treatment and violence at the hands of state agents. Others believe that they have no chance of receiving refugee status in Greece. The recognition rate at first instance in Greece in 2007 stood at 0.04 percent. During the first nine months of 2008, it dropped further to 0.03 percent.[112] Many children also told us they believe that benefits and support in other EU countries are better. As a result, they attempt to travel illegally to another EU country, often a dangerous and life-threatening journey, in order to submit an asylum application or to remain there otherwise.

Asylum Procedures for Unaccompanied Children

Unaccompanied children who want to apply for asylum in Greece face serious obstacles in gaining access to asylum procedures. Some resort to seeking a letter from NGOs addressed to police authorities in order to be able to access the building and file an asylum application. During the asylum procedure unaccompanied children are rarely represented by a lawyer or guardian, and very few children are assisted in getting ready for their asylum interview. As a result, children are often not given an opportunity to fully explain their reasons for coming to Greece, which significantly reduces their chance of being granted refugee status. Indeed, the reality of the system is that their chances are close to zero.[113] The law does not provide for legal representation for an asylum seeker, though it does not exclude it. However, there is a paucity of lawyers who represent asylum seekers in Greece, and this service is provided only by few NGOs or pro bono lawyers.[114] 

Access to asylum procedures

Even though police officials told Human Rights Watch that asylum applications by children are treated as a priority,  children themselves described immense difficulties in accessing procedures.[115] Unaccompanied children are among the approximately 1,000 persons who queue on Sunday mornings to submit their asylum applications at the Petrou Ralli police station[116] in Athens, the facility where 94 percent of Greece's asylum applications are processed.[117] Fourteen-year-old Lal S. told Human Rights Watch that he gave up trying to submit an asylum application there after several unsuccessful attempts to enter the building: "I tried many times to get the red card.[118] They give the red card only on Sundays and we couldn't enter. We tried several times but we gave up."[119] Similarly, 17-year-old Musa M. told Human Rights Watch that he had spent three nights waiting in line:

I got the red card at Petrou Ralli station. To receive it I had to go several times. I went three times during the night. We went there at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. on Saturday night to keep the place in the queue. Maybe it was the sixth or seventh time that I managed to enter. Because I was small I was pushing so I managed to get inside.[120]

Sixteen-year-old Hamed P. recounted how he had to clear the street of rubbish left by those in the queue in order to be able to apply for asylum:

When I went to the police station there were 700 persons at the police station. I arrived at 4 a.m. and waited in line. There were more than 400 who went inside.… The police told us to clean the street and then we would be taken inside the police station. At that time the weather was cold so some people had brought cardboard, blankets, and made fires while waiting so we cleaned everything. We were 15 persons. Then they gave us a small paper with an appointment.[121]  

Sixteen-year-old Ali N. arrived alone at Athens airport from an African country in February 2008. He tried to apply for asylum at the passport counter but didn't speak any Greek or English. He told us that he was taken into detention at the Petrou Ralli detention center for two months instead. He said he was not given an opportunity to ask for asylum, he had not seen a copy of the UNHCR publication for asylum seekers, and he never met an interpreter:

When I was arrested in Greece, I spent two nights at the airport detention center. I couldn't communicate with the Greek police. Then I spent two months in Petrou Ralli.… When I was released from jail I was given a deportation order for three months. I couldn't ask for asylum in Petrou Ralli. I never had the opportunity to speak to an interpreter to make an asylum application.… I had no information. The police didn't give me any information. There was no interpreter. I had no idea how long I would be detained.[122]

Some children manage to contact service-providing NGOs for information about and help to access the asylum procedure in Greece, and their rights as asylum seekers.[123] Some children only managed to enter the police building to physically file an asylum application after the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) issued them a letter addressed to authorities at Petrou Ralli station. Seventeen-year-old Fahim F. told us: "I went three or four times to the police station. I stayed in line for two or three hours. Then GCR gave me a letter and I entered." Authorities confirmed that they accept asylum applications from children who are referred to them by NGOs any day of the week. Even if this is the case, not all children are able to seek the help of GCR or other NGO legal service providers, and such a system does not guarantee access to asylum procedures.

Access is further hampered by the fact that most of the children interviewed were illiterate or possessed insufficient reading ability to understand printed materials about asylum that are sometimes available in detention centers. None of the children interviewed by Human Rights Watch had been orally informed by the police about their right to seek asylum, although police are instructed to do so.[124]

Children's understanding of the meaning of asylum, including by those who have made an application, was very limited, and children often highlighted that the red card meant they would not be arrested. According to 15-year-old Nurullah F. from Afghanistan, his father told him to flee from a refugee camp after the killing of a relative due to links to a political group. His understanding of asylum was as follows: "I know that if I have the red card I have regular status for six months, so I decided to have the red card."[125]

The government-funded Red Cross program in Patras was a positive example of providing access to asylum procedures for unaccompanied children and asylum seekers in general. Unaccompanied children arrested by police or port police were referred to the Red Cross, informed about their rights to seek asylum and offered a place in a care center. The Red Cross assisted more than 100 unaccompanied children in filing an asylum application within the two years the program was operating. The program, however, was halted at the end of August 2008 after funding by the EU and the Greek government was used up.[126] 

Representation during Asylum Procedures

As mentioned above, a child aged 14 or older and deemed mature enough to understand the meaning of an asylum application does not have to be represented by his or her guardian by law, and the police in that case only have to inform the child's guardian. This obligation to notify the child's guardian stops if the child is 16 or 17 years old, if he or she is likely to turn 18 before the first-instance decision, or if the child is married or has been married.[127] These legal loopholes result in an absence of legal representation and protection of unaccompanied children in the asylum procedure.

None of the children interviewed by Human Rights Watch who submitted their asylum applications at Petrou Ralli police station have been represented by a guardian or lawyer. The Greek Council for Refugees told Human Rights Watch they do not have sufficient numbers of lawyers on staff to ensure representation for unaccompanied children during the first-instance interview.[128] The juvenile prosecutor of Attica region, who is supposed to act as the temporary guardian for unaccompanied children in her region, told Human Rights Watch that she "never heard that an asylum-seeking child is not represented" during the asylum interview. Yet, she clearly did not consider that such representation was part of her mandate.[129]

The presence of a lawyer during the asylum interview appears to make a significant difference for the interview process. Children who had been represented, in contrast to those who hadn't, told Human Rights Watch that their interviews with the police were long and that they were able to tell their full stories.[130]

Asylum Interview

With few exceptions, unaccompanied children who had not been represented told Human Rights Watch that the asylum interview lasted approximately 10 to 15 minutes, that they were asked a few questions of a rather general nature and not given an opportunity to fully explain the reasons for their displacement. Many children were ill-prepared for the interview and held the mistaken belief that since they were not asked detailed questions about the reasons for leaving their country it meant they did not have to give such information. Interviewers, furthermore, ask leading questions to elicit statements that asylum applicants came to Greece for economic reasons.[131]

Sami F., who was 17 at the time of his interview, reported,

They asked me what problems I had. I said my father was a farmer and didn't have land. They asked about my province and district. I told them about the commander, but they didn't ask me many details about the commander. There was an interpreter and the interview lasted 15 minutes.

Seventeen-year-old Musa M. was interviewed by police through an interpreter:

They asked me some questions and made fingerprints. There was an Iranian interpreter. I was asked what my problem was in Afghanistan, where I had gone to and where I had entered Greece. After that they gave me the red card. It lasted 15 minutes.… The police did not ask me about my story so I didn't tell them. They asked me which province I was from but not which district.[132]

Musa M. told Human Rights Watch that he fled from Afghanistan with his family at the age of eight due to the ruthless rule of a local commander that led to the displacement of hundreds of families. Police did not ask him what district (Daikundi) his family was from, and the boy himself was unaware that the district had been turned into a province since he left. Hence, Greek authorities registered him as a resident of the wrong province. The fact that they failed to record such important basic information makes a careful verification of the boy's claim on the basis of country-of-origin information very difficult.[133]

Two children told Human Rights Watch that they were interviewed by an interpreter only, with no police officer present. Greek legislation prescribes the presence of at least one police officer and an interpreter during the asylum interview.[134] The interpreter in both cases was described as an Iranian woman.

Fahim F., a 17-year-old from Afghanistan, described his interview:

I went to the police and had few and short questions.… An Iranian interpreter [did] the interview but there was no police officer present. The [Iranian] woman didn't ask a lot of questions. She asked why I had come, from where I was, and for how long I have been in Greece…. She wrote something but I don't know what. I think she wrote what she wanted to write. That interview lasted for 10 minutes. She didn't ask further questions and I answered all the questions she asked.[135]

Hafez S., 16-year-old boy, said,

I was at the big police station. An Iranian woman asked me questions: why I came and what my difficulties were. There was no police officer present, only the Iranian woman was asking me questions. The police was busy taking fingerprints…. In GCR I gave a one-and-a-half hour interview. There were too many people at the police station so they couldn't do long interviews. They just asked me very simple questions at the police.… I answered all the questions she asked me. The questions were short and I couldn't fully explain my case.[136]

Sixteen-year-old Hamed P., who had eventually managed to get access to file his claim by cleaning the street, told us that he was pressured during the interview to say he came for economic reasons. He further said that the police officer in the interview intimidated him. His interview was taken at Petrou Ralli police station in early 2008:

The policeman in civilian clothes asked something and the Iranian woman told me I should say I came for a better life. I don't know whether the police officer said that or not because I didn't understand him. I told the Iranian woman that I wanted to explain my other problems. At that point the police officer shouted at me and I got scared. I don't remember what I said after that…. I thought if I said something more the police would kick me out without documents. I was scared. I was then told to step to the side for fingerprints. The Iranian woman said two or three times that I should say I came for a better life. The interview took five minutes.[137]

He told Human Rights Watch that he had fled from Afghanistan on his own at the age of 13 because he was threatened by a local commander:

There was a commander. His name was (he whispers) [name withheld]. Always when I went to work – they stopped me and told me to come with them. This person wanted to keep underage boys for dancing and more. I got scared and left Afghanistan. At that time I was 13 years old. I went to Iran alone.… My father is old. The commander threatened me and said if I complained to anybody he would kill me. He had two other boys who were underage with him.… When the government of Iran decided to deport Afghans I was afraid to go back and I decided to move to Europe.… You can speak to anybody in [location withheld] and ask about [name of commander withheld]. He's a very bad person and everybody knows him.[138]

Even though authorities are obliged to take into consideration child-specific forms of persecution when children file asylum applications, Hamed P. was not given a chance to explain the circumstances behind his escape from Afghanistan.[139] The UNHCR guidelines for assessing asylum applications by Afghan nationals specifically mention that unaccompanied children continue to be exposed to exploitation and that there are cases of boys who are abducted for sexual exploitation.[140]

NGOs and lawyers who provide legal aid and information to asylum seekers insist that the first-instance asylum interview is superficial, that the right questions are not being asked, that asylum seekers' claims are routinely rejected, and that the claim is considered to be unfounded if the asylum seekers make any mention of economic reasons.[141] "They don't give you a chance to tell why you left your country," Efthalia Pappa from the Ecumenical Refugee Program told us.[142]

Similarly, the main refugee rights organization, the Greek Council for Refugees, said that, besides a lack of resources, one reason why they do not send lawyers to represent children during the first-instance asylum interview is because the first instance procedure was not a meaningful assessment of a person's claim.[143] A UNHCR-commissioned study found that authorities use a pre-written introductory note for the files of asylum seekers. The note includes as a permanent entry that the responsible police officer does not recommend the granting of refugee status. The note was wrongfully included into three files of child asylum seekers for whom the granting of asylum was actually recommended.[144]

Authorities do not publish a recognition rate for asylum applications by unaccompanied children.[145] A UNHCR sponsored study by independent researchers found that examinations of asylum claims by unaccompanied children are delayed by authorities until children reach adulthood.[146]

Efthalia Pappa from the Ecumenical Refugee Program told us that even in convincing cases the police would conclude that an asylum seeker came for economic reasons:

We accompanied an unaccompanied minor from Eritrea to his first-instance interview.This boy had the capacity to tell how he had been tortured.Because a lawyer was present, the police officer was obliged to write it down.At the end, though, he wrote 'manifestly unfounded, came for economic reasons.'There was a lawyer there. We got the minutes of the interview. Our lawyer was present at the interview. If she had not been present, the boy would not even have been able to tell his story.[147]

These findings highlight the extent to which the government of Greece falls short of its obligations under international law with regards to unaccompanied children seeking asylum. Article 22 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child obliges states parties to ensure that a child who seeks asylum or is considered a refugee shall "receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance in the enjoyment of applicable rights" set forth in international law.[148] The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child specifies that this obligation entails, inter alia, "the responsibility to set up a functioning asylum system" and to "build capacities necessary to realize this treatment in accordance with applicable rights" so that "asylum-seeking children, including those who are unaccompanied or separated, shall enjoy access to asylum procedures and other complementary mechanisms providing international protection, irrespective of their age."[149]

The Committee on the Rights of the Child further urges authorities to give priority to asylum applications by unaccompanied children and it recommends that children in the asylum procedure be represented by a person familiar with the child's background as well as a lawyer.[150] Authorities are explicitly called upon to take into account UNHCR positions, to acknowledge the various manifestations of persecution in children's experience, and to give "utmost attention" to such forms of persecution.[151]