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Disaster, conflict and displacement

in Greece

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Children affected

  • By the end of 2022, 86,600 refugees and asylum-seekers were in Greece (UNHCR, 2023).
  • In May 2023, it was estimated that 28,500 refugee and migrant children were present in Greece (56 per cent boys and 44 per cent girls). The majority are under 13 years old (35 per cent 0-5 years old, 39 per cent 6-12 years old and 26 per cent 13-17 years old).
  • Unaccompanied (UAC) or children separated from their families account for around 6 per cent of all children on the move currently in Greece (1,818 in June 2023) (June 2023).
  • Most UAC are boys (83 per cent) between 15-17 years old from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria and other countries. 94.5 per cent of unaccompanied children live in long-term accommodation.
  • In 2022, 18.6 per cent of registered cases of racist violence (8 out of 43) were against minors from 13-17 years old (RVRN, 2022).

Equity

Gender​​​​​

  • Out of 358 referred victims of human trafficking, 68 were children. Out of those, 41 were girls and 27 were boys. Half of the children victims of human trafficking were UAC (34 children, of whom 22 girls and 12 boys).

Enabling Environment

Legislation, policy, resources, coordination, data

Bottlenecks

  • The remoteness of some accommodation facilities renders interaction with the local community and access to some services difficult.

CRC Recommendations (2022)

  • 5. The Committee recommends that the State party ensure the realization of children’s rights in accordance with the Convention and the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict and the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography throughout the process of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It urges the State party to ensure the meaningful participation of children in the design and implementation of policies and programmes aimed at achieving all 17 Sustainable Development Goals as far as they concern children.
  • 14. The Committee notes the remarkable role of NGOs in the provision of services to children, particularly refugee and asylum-seeking children and children in situations of migration, and welcomes the establishment of the NGO accreditation to facilitate collaboration with the State party’s competent authorities. The Committee recommends that the State party intensify cooperation with NGOs, including those representing children belonging to the Muslim minority in Thrace, and meaningfully involve them in the development, implementation and evaluation of policies, programmes and legislation relating to children’s rights, and in preparing periodic reports under the Convention.
  • 15(b) Undertake awareness-raising campaigns with the tourism industry and the public at large on the prevention of sexual exploitation of children in the context of travel and tourism, with particular attention to migrant boys; strengthen data collection in this regard; and consider ratifying the UNWTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics.
  • 28(b) Strengthen its efforts to prevent female genital mutilation in relation to migrant girls.
  • 31(c) Monitor the implementation of Law 4538/2018 and further promote and strengthen the capacity of foster care, including by conducting a national recruitment campaign for foster parents and providing regular and adequate training for them before and during the placement of children, especially on fostering children with special needs and unaccompanied migrant children.
  • 40(b) Completely ban the placing of children in immigration detention, ensure that protective custody is no longer applied and prioritize the immediate transfer of asylum-seeking children and their families out of detention centres, while ensuring timely identification procedures.
  • 40(d) Review Law 4636/2019 to ensure that specific consideration and appropriate safeguards in asylum proceedings are provided for children, including unaccompanied and separated children, that such children are exempt from the accelerated border asylum procedures, and to expand the definition of “family members” to include families created in transit; and facilitate family reunification.
  • 40(e) Adopt the revised legislation on the guardianship system and foster care for unaccompanied children and implement it, while taking into account the specific needs of children.
  • 45(a) Explicitly criminalize the recruitment of children under 18 years of age by non-state armed groups;
  • 45(b) Collect data on, assess the situation of, and protect children who may have been involved or used in armed conflict abroad.
  • 45(d) Include peace education into school curricula;
  • 45(e) Prohibit in law the export of arms to States that may recruit children under 18 years of age.
  • 47. The Committee recommends that the State party, in order to further strengthen the fulfilment of children’s rights, consider ratifying the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

National Actions

  • Support the State to implement the National Integration Strategy and the Strategy for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors.
  • Support the State to take over critical child protection and GBV services in open accommodation sites and provide technical expertise for the operationalization of child protection framework.
  • Support advocacy efforts towards EUMS on the completion of the voluntary relocation scheme for UAC and vulnerable asylum-seeking and beneficiaries of international protection families.

Supply

Adequately staffed services, facilities, information, commodities

Bottlenecks

  • Delays in the asylum procedures.
  • Coordination difficulties between responsible authorities.
  • Shortage of available space in refugee and migrant accommodation.

CRC Recommendations (2022)

  • 18(a) Intensify its measures to ensure that Roma children, children belonging to the Muslim minority in Thrace, children with disabilities, refugee and asylum-seeking children, children in situations of migration and children of single and/or undocumented migrant parents have effective access to food security, healthcare, education, housing, water, sanitation, social services and a decent standard of living, and ensure regular and systematic monitoring and impact assessment of the measures taken.
  • 21(a) Further facilitate access to birth registration procedures and identity documentation and correction of birth certificates for Roma children and children of migrant parents, free of charge.
  • 25(c) Provide information in the migrant children’s languages and in child friendly formats on their rights, administrative procedures, access to international protection, healthcare, housing and education.
  • 31(h) Ensure adequate support for children leaving care, including unaccompanied migrant children, and further develop community-based services and supported independent living.
  • 38(a) Remove barriers to school enrolment and ensure that children with disabilities, Roma children, asylum-seeking and refugee children, unaccompanied migrant children, are promptly integrated into, retained and finish the mainstream preschool, primary and secondary education, regardless of their place of residence.
  • 38(h) Allocate adequate financial, human and technical resources to expand the coverage, capacity and monitoring of pre-school education and ensure access thereto, including in rural and remote areas, for children with disabilities, Roma children, asylum-seeking and refugee children and unaccompanied children, and to ensure an adequate number of bilingual pre-schools in the Muslim minority in Thrace.
  • 40(a) End the practice of forced returns (“pushbacks”) of families and migrant children and ensure that they are individually identified, registered and protected against refoulement, including through effective access to asylum procedures, free legal and humanitarian assistance, in accordance with articles 6, 22 and 37 of the Convention; adopt binding codes of conduct for border officials and establish an independent border monitoring mechanism; conduct in depth investigations on reported pushback cases including the ones that have been identified in the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) report, and hold accountable those responsible by prosecuting them; provide support, compensations and protection to child victims; and stop all measures of harassment of human rights defenders who rescue migrants and provide assistance to them.
  • 40(f) Ensure access to free legal aid and appropriate assistance in a timely manner, for all migrant children, at all stages of the procedure, and guarantee the training and availability of lawyers and jurists throughout the territory, and in particular for children living in camps and reception centers;
  • 40(g) Ensure that migrant children have access to age appropriate, child-friendly justice mechanisms and remedies to challenge all decisions related to their migration status;
  • 40(h) Provide all refugee, asylum seeking and unaccompanied children with sustainable, open and quality accommodation and shelter outside detention, including by increasing reception capacity and quality, implementing the EU relocation initiative, promptly closing “safe zones” and developing a protection database.
  • 40(k) Address the barriers hindering access to education, including by ensuring transportation to school, access to vaccination, medical examinations and documentation, ensuring access to distance learning, reviewing school curriculum, providing catch-up courses and Greek language classes, ensuring an adequate number and building the intercultural capacity of teachers, and increasing the presence of “refugee education coordinators” in schools.
  • 40(l) Provide all possible facilities, services and protection to all refugees on an equal basis with Ukrainian refugees.
  • 45(c) Establish a mechanism to early identify foreign children who may have been involved in armed conflicts abroad upon entering the State party, and provide them with physical and psychological recovery and social integration into the society.

National Actions

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Demand

Financial access and social behavioural drivers

Bottlenecks

  • Negative public attitudes towards refugees and migrants.

CRC Recommendations

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National Actions

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