UNICEF claims unaccompanied refugee children in Greece lack proper care

by Aggelos Skordas

Nearly two out of three unaccompanied refugee and migrant children currently located in Greece, are lacking proper shelter and care according to UNICEF. The organisation that provides humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in need has repeatedly warned the Greek authorities since the outbreak of the migration crisis and is urging for a strategy to keep vulnerable children safe. Hot spots and reception camps on the islands are once again overcrowded due to the recent surge in the refugee and migrant arrivals while the living conditions of those living there are deteriorating with the winter approaching.

According to UNICEF, reception facilities for children are hosting twice as many as they were designed for and they lack personnel staff and safeguards. The delays in transferring the children from the islands to the mainland is furthermore compounding their emotional and mental strain, increasing the risks for their wellbeing.

In the islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos and Leros there are now some 1,800 unaccompanied children waiting for shelter, living in open sites, reception centers, in de facto detention centers or even on the streets. These 1,600 children in acute need include 106 in detention, 228 in reception and identification centers on the islands and 194 in safe zones. “Children stranded without families should have proper shelter, care and protection, and there are solutions that could make this a reality for them. Unaccompanied children stuck on the islands should be transferred to shelters on the mainland without delay; existing shelters with the right standards should receive available funding and there needs to be more foster care or supervised living schemes. This can all be done”, Laurent Chapuis, Country Coordinator for UNICEF’s refugee and migrant response in Greece, underlined. By the end of September the total number of unaccompanied children in Greece reached 2,850. There are an estimated 19,000 refugee and migrant children in Greece today with unaccompanied children accounting for roughly 15 per cent of the total number of child arrivals.

UNICEF is calling for immediate response to the issue by the Greek authorities that have to introduce policy and legal reforms to strengthen community-based care, whereas for those children who have relatives in other European countries UNICEF is urging the European Union to accelerate the reunification procedures. “The Greek authorities and their partners on the frontline of the European refugee and migrant crisis since 2015, have made tremendous efforts in responding to the needs of children and families”, Chapuis said.

At the same time the migrant flows to northeastern Aegean from the coasts of Turkey remain high. In the period between 1 and 24 October 2,771 migrants and refugees arrived on the Greek islands, according to authorities. During the same period, the Turkish Coast Guard announced that it intervened in 47 trafficking incidents involving 1,969 migrants and refugees that were sent back to Turkey. In September there were more than 5,700 arrivals in Greece compared to an estimated 3,080 arrivals in September 2016.