On November 18, the Migration and Asylum Minister of Greece, Notis Mitarakis, made an announcement that the Greek government is ending the long-standing practice of detaining unaccompanied migrant children in jail cells.
Human Rights Watch published its first report on the consequences of the “protective custody” regime, as this practice is called in Greece, in 2008 and has since then interviewed dozens of unaccompanied children. These children have been living in small, overcrowded, unsanitary police station cells, often with criminal detainees.
In December 2016 Human Rights Watch published another report, calling on Greek government once again to end the practice, followed by the #FreeTheKids campaign in April 2019.
Human Rights Watch advises that Greece should:
- act quickly to repeal the legal provisions that allow children to be detained in so-called protective custody,
- increase its shelter capacity,
- find alternatives to detention,
- establish a functional and comprehensive foster family system.
Human Rights Watch advises that the EU also needs to help:
- The European Commission should financially support Greece in its efforts to respect migrant children’s rights,
- other EU member states should speed up family reunification for children with relatives in their territories and should relocate unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, even if they lack family ties.
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