Author
Under Greek law, any authority detecting the entry of an unaccompanied or separated child into the Greek territory shall take the appropriate measures to inform the closest Public Prosecutor’s office and the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons and Institutional Protection.[1]
On 22 July 2022, L 4960/2022 on the National Guardianship System and Framework of Accommodation of UAMs[2] entered into force, replacing former law L 4554/2018 on guardianship, which was never implemented in practice. New provisions on guardianship and accommodation were inserted in the third part of the Asylum Code regarding Reception (provisions on guardianship were incorporated in Chapter C / Part 3 in Articles 66A-66ΚΔ and provisions on accommodation in Chapter D / Part 3 in Articles 66ΚΕ–66ΛΔ). Under the new legislative provisions on guardianship, general competency was transferred from the National Centre for Social Solidarity of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to the Special Secretary for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors (SSPUAM) now General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons and Institutional Protection.
Under the new law, the provision of guardianship is relegated to a list of legal entities appointed by the Public Prosecutor (i.e., public entities, NGOs, international organisations) who collaborate with persons acting as guardianship mandated persons (henceforth referred to as “guardians”). The Public Prosecutor can also appoint a child’s family member or friend to be responsible for their everyday care.
In late autumn 2023 (end of October) METAdrasi and Praksis NGOs were announced by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum as the finalist candidates entrusted with the implementation of the National Guardianship scheme, following a public procurement procedure. The project officially begun on 1st November 2023 and, according to its design, the first two months would consist of preparatory actions (trainings, prioritisation of cases etc.).
The project’s implementation involves a phased approach to recruit guardianship mandated persons over three stages and now, at this first stage, 60 guardians for UASCs are placed at Greece’s main entry points (the 5 Aegean islands and Evros area) and/or to other reception facilities under pressure (e.g., in Serres, northern Greece). At the time of writing (February 2024) guardians are now deployed and started work, supporting unaccompanied children on the move with a focus on separated children, vulnerable children with medical issues, children below the age of 14 and girls, regardless their age.[3] The next group of guardians is expected to start in the beginning of March 2024, covering more of the identified needs.
Assigning the additional task of guardianship to prosecutors has proved to be particularly disastrous over the years, especially given the number of prosecutors and their workload as prosecuting authorities.[4] Therefore, this development is positive, but it also needs to be sustainable. The General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons and Institutional Protection has replied to GCR that funding for this project is secured until the end of 2023, but it’s in the Secretariat’s aspirations that funding is not going to be a problem for the project’s sustainability.[5]
The total number of applications for international protection lodged by unaccompanied minors before the Asylum Service in 2023 is 2,937 (of which 42 are subsequent), while only 1,163 unaccompanied children received positive decisions during the same period.[6] As some decisions spill over from previous years and the number of negative decisions is not publicly available, nor was this number shared by the Greek authorities despite GCR’s request one cannot estimate the actual scale of the issue.
In early April 2021, the Ministry of Migration and Asylum and UNHCR, in collaboration with IOM and the NGOs Arsis, METAdrasi and the Network for Children’s Rights, launched a mechanism to rapidly identify unaccompanied children who are homeless or live in insecure conditions and transfer them to safe accommodation. The National Emergency Response Mechanism (NERM), which remains operational to this day, includes a 24/7 telephone hotline (multiple languages available) for identifying and tracing children in need,[7] and Info Desks / Mobile Units in Athens and Thessaloniki, together with emergency accommodation facilities. NERM is considered an integral part of UASCs protection in Greece,[8] and the General Secretariat plans to expand its scope to cover vulnerable persons who are homeless or at risk.[9]
According to GCR’s observations, the new mechanism is very responsive to requests addressed both by NGO’s and by UAMs themselves. According to the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons and Institutional Protection since the beginning of NERMs operation in 2021 until 27 November 2023, the number of unaccompanied children who have been accommodated by NERM is 4,292 and a total of 586 unaccompanied/separated children from Ukraine have received support by the Mechanism from March 2022 until 27 November 2023.[10] According to the same source, the Secretariat plans to expand NERM’s competence beyond UASCs, offering also support to vulnerable persons who are homeless or at risk.
[1] Article 64(1) of the Asylum Code as amended by article 4 L.4960/2022.
[2] L 4960/2022 National Guardianship System and Framework of Accommodation of UAMs and other provisions under the jurisdiction of the MoMA.
[3] UNHCR, Child Protection Working Group meeting documents, December 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/byhyuhwk.
[4] Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Children Cast Adrift: The Exclusion and exploitation of unaccompanied minors (UAMs), November 2019, available at: https://tinyurl.com/yckvetdf.
[5] Answer received orally at the UNHCR Child Protection North 29 Jan 2024 meeting.
[6] See MoMA’s consolidated report for 2023, APPENDIX Α, available at: https://tinyurl.com/bdh5zyba, p. 7 and 15.
[7] Ministry of Migration and Asylum, Σε λειτουργία ο εθνικός μηχανισμός για τον εντοπισμό και την προστασία ασυνόδευτων παιδιών σε επισφαλείς συνθήκες, 6 April 2021, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/56y82a7e.
[8] Ministry of Migration and Asylum, Special Secretariat for the Protection of UAMs, National Emergency Response Mechanism. A safety net for unaccompanied children identified in precarious living conditions, November 2022, available at: https://tinyurl.com/mwwnjr3z.
[9] see Ministry of Migration and Asylum, General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons and Instituntional protection, presentation at the UNHCR Child Protection Working Group, December 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/u33d6ekm.
[10] UNHCR, Child Protection Working Group meeting documents, December 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/u33d6ekm.