Author
National legislation provides a number of guarantees with regard to the detention of vulnerable persons, without prohibiting it. According to Article 52 Asylum Code, women should be detained separately from men,[1] the privacy of families in detention should be duly respected,[2] and the detention of minors should be a last resort measure and be carried out separately from adults.[3]
More generally, Greek authorities have the positive obligation to provide special care to applicants belonging to vulnerable groups (see Special Reception Needs). However, in practice, persons belonging to vulnerable groups are detained in particular due to the lack of proper individualised assessment prior to the issuance of a detention order and the lack of proper identification of vulnerabilities while in detention. During 2025 GCR has supported various cases of vulnerable persons (physical/mentally ill, victims of torture etc).
Detention of unaccompanied children
As mentioned above, following the abolition of ‘protective custody’ in 2020 (L. 4760/2020) unaccompanied children are not detained in PRDCs and other police establishments.
However, newly arrived unaccompanied children remain -depending on the number of the arrivals, in some cases for prolonged periods restricted in CCAC in the Aegean Islands or Malakasa RIC (Attica area) in de facto detention. In practise this measure is a significant backtrack on the protection of unaccompanied children and the abolition of protective custody.
The Commissioner for Human Rights following his visit to Greece in February 2025 referred to “the situation of unaccompanied children being held for prolonged periods in de facto detention in inadequate and overcrowded facilities […]”, acknowledged that “changing routes may create new challenges for authorities”, the Commissioner notes that “such changing circumstances should not result in deprivation of liberty or the placement in conditions not in line with the Convention”.[4] Equally, and following a GCR intervention, the Greek Ombudsperson has underlined that “there is a strong concern about whether the conditions of their accommodation meet the required security and protection” and that “the image of the RICs and CCACs, based on the observed security features (double NATO-type barbed wire fences, turnstiles, surveillance systems, etc.), is more like a detention center than a reception and accommodation facility and may have a negative impact on the mental health of the residents, especially the vulnerable persons“.[5] At the end of 2025 (December 2025, a total of 143 UAMs remained in mainland RICs and island CCACs.[6]
A number of rulings issued by Greek Administrative Courts during 2025 corroborate that the situation of children in the “safe areas” in CCACs on the islands and Malakasa RIC, in Attica region, amounts to de facto detention applied for prolonged periods of time.[7]
In addition, during 2025, the ECtHR has repeatedly granted Interim Measures (Rule 39 of the Rules of the Court) for dozens of cases of UASC, who remained for prolonged periods in de facto detention and under significantly substandard and dangerous conditions in the “safe area” of different CCACs.[8]
Detention following wrong age assessment
On 22 August 2025, Joint Ministerial Decision 147627/2025 (Gov. Gazette 4581/Β/22-8-2025) entered into force, introducing several problematic changes in the age assessment procedure that risk undermining the protection of unaccompanied children, including vis-à-vis protection against detention, as highlighted in a Joint CSO letter to the Ministries of Migration and Asylum and of Health.[9]
The new JMD mandates that all stages of the age-assessment process, including X-rays, be carried out cumulatively and on the same day, while giving primacy to radiological findings for the assessment of a person’s age in case of conflicting results.[10] This is in contrast to the obligation to apply the least intrusive methods first, and to international standards supporting holistic, multidisciplinary assessments rather than an automatic reliance on X-rays. Furthermore, the JMD curtails the deadline for appeals against wrongful age assessment from 15 to 5 days,[11] and introduces an automatic, even if contestable, presumption of adulthood for anyone who refuses to be subjected to intrusive medical examinations.[12] It also restricts the presumption of minority solely to persons initially registered as minors,[13] leaving minors mistakenly registered as adults without appointed guardians and vulnerable to being detained with unrelated adults.[14]
[1] Article 52 (4) Asylum Code.
[2] Article 52 (3) Asylum Code.
[3] Article 52 (2) Asylum Code.
[4] CoE, Commissioner for Human Rights, Memorandum on migration and border control, following the Commissioner’s visit to Greece from 3 to 7 February 2025, para. 14.
[5] GCR, News for the Field, December 2024, available here.
[6] General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection, Situation Update: Unaccompanied Minors (UAM) in Greece, 1 December 2025, available at: https://tinyurl.com/4ddcbk46.
[7] For Samos CCAC see HRLP, Court acknowledges de-facto detention, declares it unlawful in groundbreaking decision, 21 February 2025, https://www.humanrightslp.eu/post/court-acknowledges-de-facto-detention-declares-it-unlawful; For Leros CCAC see ERBB, Greek Court Rules Minor’s Stay in Leros “Safe Zone” as Unlawful Detention, 12 March 2025, https://equal-rights.org/articles/141; For Malakasa RiIC see ERBB, Court Declares Unlawful Detention of Two Minors in Malakasa Camp in Athens, 7 April 2025, https://equal-rights.org/articles/144; For Kos CCAC see ERBB, One more time, the Greek Administrative Court finds that a minor’s stay in the so-called “safe zone” of the Closed Controlled Access Centre of Kos constitutes unlawful de facto detention, 6 June 2025, https://equal-rights.org/articles/148 & ERBB, Unlawful Detention of Unaccompanied Minors in the “Safe Area” of the Kos CCAC, October 2025, https://equal-rights.org/articles/165.
[8] See in details GCR & the AIRE Center, COMMUNICATION In accordance with Rule 9.2 of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers regarding the supervision of the execution of judgments and of terms of friendly settlements by the Advice on Individual Rights in Europe (The AIRE Centre) and the Greek Council for Refugees Concerning the supervision of the cases O.R. v. Greece and related cases, https://tinyurl.com/bdd5u284.
[9] SCI & GCR, Children on the move in Greece: September-December 2025, 18 December 2025, available at: https://tinyurl.com/3vxxk75t.
[10] Article 4 JMD 147627/2025.
[11] Article 9 JMD 147627/2025.
[12] Article 4 JMD 147627/2025.
[13] Article 11 JMD 147627/2025.
[14] For more, SCI & GCR, Children on the move in Greece: September-December 2025, 18 December 2025, available at: https://tinyurl.com/3vxxk75t.