“Why Are You Keeping Me Here? Unaccompanied Children Detained in Greece” is a 27 page report by the human rights organization which documents arbitrary and prolonged detention of migrant/refugee minors in violation of international and Greek law.
 
The organization conducted interviews with 42 children who were or had been detained and visits to two police stations and two detention centers in mainland Greece. However, the situation in the centers of the Aegean Islands is the same, if not worse. According to the organization’s investigation, children are held in unsanitary conditions, sometimes with adults who are not even members of their family, both in police station and detention centers with little access to basic care or services.
 
Greek authorities registered more than 3.300 unaccompanied asylum-seeking and other migrant children arriving in Greece in the first seven months of 2016 alone. While unaccompanied children should be referred to safe accommodation, Greece has a chronic shortage of space and detains children in so-called protective custody while they await space in the overburdened shelter system.
 
“Greece says it has to detain children for their own protection, but being locked up in cramped and filthy cells is the last thing these kids need” said Rebecca Riddell, Europe fellow at Human Rights Watch.
 
Human Rights Watch reports that in some cases, minors were made to live and sleep in overcrowded, filthy, bug- and vermin-infested cells, sometimes without mattresses, and were deprived of appropriate sanitation, hygiene, and privacy. Some were held with adults even though this increases the risk of abuse and sexual violence and violates international and national laws requiring the separation of adults from children in detention. Based on Greek law, children have to be referred to a shelter in 25 days, which could be extended up to 45 days in very limited cases. But Human Rights Watch has found Greek law has often not been respected.
 
Children in some cases also face ill-treatment by police. While most of the children interviewed did not report abuse, four children said they had been slapped or humiliated by police officers.
 
“I had just woken up. I didn't have time to wash my face, so I was walking sleepily, and the police officer came and slapped me so hard it blinded me” said a 17-year-old Syrian boy interviewed at the Paranesti detention center. A police officer slapped him in the course of hurrying him to a doctor’s appointment.
 
“Children in police custody often have little or no access to counseling, information, and legal aid. Only one of the four facilities Human Rights Watch visited offered access to psychological care. None of the children we interviewed in police custody had been given access to an interpreter in order to speak to the police, and only one of the four facilities offered any access to books and games” Human Rights Watch reports.
 
Greece has recognized the problem but, according to the organization, has done very little to address it. In fact, it has been magnified after more than 160.000 people arrived in the Greek shores in the first seven months of 2016, combined with the border closures to the north which resulted to the entrapment of asylum seekers in Greece. According to the National Center for Social Solidarity, Greece has only 800 shelter spaces for unaccompanied children. As of August 11.2016, all facilities were full with 1.472 requests for placement pending.
 
The EU’s emergency relocation plan, has provided very little relief. As of September 2, only 49 unaccompanied children had been relocated. On an August visit to Greece, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, emphasized the need for EU member states to accelerate transfer of asylum seekers out of Greece, through family reunification and relocation. EU member states rejected a plea from Greece in June to make all unaccompanied children eligible for relocation, regardless of nationality.
 
“Greek authorities face real challenges because of the significant number of arrivals, but these don’t absolve Greece of its obligation to protect children who have fled violence, endured traumatic journeys, and are alone” Riddell said. “If EU member states are serious about protecting vulnerable children, they should urgently move these children out of Greece and into member states”.