The tests follow a Joint Ministerial Decision issued in August by Plevris, Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis and Deputy Minister Sevi Voloudaki authorising medical examinations to verify the age of refugees and migrants who declare themselves minors. The government justified the measure as necessary for ‘immigration control’.

‘In August we issued a Joint Ministerial Decree for the further medical examination of those who declare themselves minors. Of the first 104 cases examined, 59 were adults. The consequences for those who made a false declaration are self-evident,’ Plevris stated, in what critics described as another racist crescendo.

The procedure

According to the ministries of Migration and Asylum and Health, age verification is conducted once and on the same day using a combination of three methods:

  • medical evaluation of physical development

  • psychosocial assessment by a specialist

  • X-ray of the left wrist or hand to determine bone age

If the results differ, the radiographic assessment prevails. The procedure requires written consent from the asylum seeker or their legal representative. However, refusal to undergo testing is taken as a presumption of adulthood, though it does not automatically bar examination of the asylum application.

Medical community: limited reliability and serious ethical violations

Humanitarian organisations, including Doctors of the World, have repeatedly opposed these procedures. In a 2016 report, the organisation explained that the tests ‘have no therapeutic purpose but are carried out for immigration control’. It warned that inaccurate assessments could lead to the arbitrary detention of children and the denial of the safeguards that protect unaccompanied minors.

‘The various medical examinations share one common element: limited reliability in determining age, with a margin of error of around two years. Many of these methods are highly intrusive, violating privacy and dignity without serving any medical purpose,’ the report stated.

Doctors also warned that X-ray examinations, which use ionising radiation, are among the most invasive methods and potentially harmful when performed without clinical necessity.

‘Migrant and refugee children arriving in Europe after dangerous journeys should not be treated with suspicion or subjected to unnecessary examinations at their first contact with authorities. Questioning their age undermines their identity and dignity, extending far beyond the narrow context of the asylum process,’ the organisation added.

The practice, condemned by international medical bodies and refugee advocates, highlights the Greek government’s increasingly punitive stance on migration and its disregard for established human-rights standards in the treatment of vulnerable minors.

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