Special reception needs of vulnerable groups

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Greek Council for Refugees Visit Website

The law provides that, when applying the provisions on reception conditions, the competent authorities shall take into account the specific situation of vulnerable persons such as minors, unaccompanied or not, direct relatives of victims of shipwrecks (parents and siblings), disabled people, elderly people, pregnant women, single parents with minor children, persons with serious illnesses, persons with a cognitive or mental disability and persons who have been subjected to torture, rape or other serious forms of psychological, physical or sexual violence, victims of female genital mutilation and victims of human trafficking.[1] Since the entry into force of the IPA on 1 January 2020 and subsequent law 4939/2022 which replaced articles 1-112 and 114 of the IPA, the assessment of the vulnerability of persons entering irregularly into the territory takes place within the framework of the Reception and Identification Procedure and iss no longer connected to the assessment of the asylum application.[2]

Under the reception and identification procedure, upon arrival, the Head of the RIC or of the Closed Control Centre ‘shall refer persons belonging to vulnerable groups to the competent social support and protection institution.’[3]

However, shortcomings in the identification of vulnerabilities, together with a critical lack of suitable reception places for vulnerable applicants on the islands (see Types of Accommodation) prevents vulnerable persons from enjoying special reception conditions. A report published by MSF highlights alarming levels of mental health problems among asylum applicants on the Greek islands, including self-harming and suicidal acts among children. According to MSF, the indefinite detention, sense of limbo and systematic violence further traumatised people seeking protection[4] Also, according to an MSF announcement on the provision of health care on Lesvos island, there are still significant gaps in asylum seekers’ access to health services due to delays in the registration process, with the example of  “a patient with a chronic heart problem and a history of heart attack, who lost his medication during the trip, (and who) was not registered at the camp for about 4 weeks and did not have access to the necessary support […]””.[5]

Moreover, in a recent joint statement of twenty civil society organisations on the living conditions and vulnerability assessment in Samos CCAC: “Any person who resides in the CCAC and especially those who are de facto detained, have insufficient and inconsistent access to medical care. Additionally, due to the absence of healthcare and individual vulnerability assessments, asylum seekers with communicable diseases risk remain undetected or unable to seek medical treatment for several weeks after arrival which causes a serious risk of contagion”.[6]

Testimonies of asylum seekers accommodated in Samos CCAC – gathered in a report of I Have Rights NGO[7]  highlight the inhuman living conditions in the structure:

“Our container is not locked, it is not safe. I don’t feel safe in this environment. They can always enter the containers when they want. no privacy. Of course it’s bad, especially we ladies need privacy. of course it stresses you, but there is nowhere you can go and complain”.[8]

“Sometimes I use some sleeping tablets. MSF [Médecins Sans Frontières] gave them to me and I use them, but otherwise I cannot sleep because of the camp stress. If there was no MSF in the camp for us, some people would die there. Because the camp doctor makes no effort. You tell them you are feeling bad, they simply tell you to go out. The workers in the camp are very, very wicked. Sometimes I feel like harming myself because of the stress of being in the camp”.[9]

The ESTIA scheme on Samos, which had offered safe apartments to vulnerable applicants in the past, including victims of sexual and gender-based violence, was discontinued. Due to a lack of alternative accommodation, even sexually abused persons stayed in tents in a separate section of Vathy camp, where the alleged perpetrators also stayed. On Lesvos, following the closure of the Kara Tepe site, a model facility offering dignified accommodation in prefabricated containers, vulnerable persons were transferred to tents in Mavrovouni camp. Owing to the reduced numbers of alternatives to camps on both islands, there are significant difficulties in finding dignified accommodation even for persons with serious health issues, as reported by MSF.[10] In Chios CCAC (Vial camp), no separate accommodation is foreseen for vulnerable persons, and rub halls with single room and no beds (only mattresses on the floor) are used for the accommodation of monoparental families, together with single men and nuclear families.[11]

In its judgement in the case of A.D. v. Greece (Application no. 55363/19), published on 4 April 2023, the ECtHR “for the first time condemned the living conditions of a pregnant woman in Samos hotspot as unanimously found that Greece had violated article 3 of the ECHR by forcing the applicant to live in unbearable conditions”.[12] The case was supported by Refugee Law Clinic Berlin (Germany), I Have Rights (Samos) and PRO ASYL.

Reception of unaccompanied children

Following the establishment of the Special Secretary for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors (SSPUM) under the MoMA in February 2020,[13] the SSPUM has become the competent authority for the protection of UAM, including for their accommodation. In June 2023, the SSPUM was abolished and its responsibilities (under article 39 of P.D. 106/2020) were transferred to the new General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons and Institutional Protection (GSVP) established with article 6(1) of P.D. 77/2023 (A’ 130/ 27.6.2023) and falling under the competency of the Deputy Minister of Migration and Asylum.[14] The newly established General Secretariat is also competent for the National Referral Mechanism, according to article 66ΛΓ of L. 4939/2022 added with article 39 of L. 4960/2022.

Ongoing progress regarding the reception capacity for unaccompanied children: As of 1 January 2024, there were at least 2,000 unaccompanied and separated children in Greece and a total of 2,060 dedicated accommodation places in shelters and Semi-Independent Living (SILs) facilities, plus 200 places in urgent accommodation facilities.[15] The latter are located in a total of 5 Emergency Accommodation Structures operating under the responsibility of the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), all of them located in the mainland (3 in Attika region and 2 in Central Macedonia) .[16]

Moreover, from the beginning of 2022 until 31 October 2023, the National Emergency Response Mechanism launched in April 2021 with the aim to trace UAM in precarious conditions and provide them with access to necessary protection, managed to identify and accommodate 3,173 children who were living in precarious conditions. or were homeless.[17] Since 2 March 2022, the National Emergency Response Mechanism received 577 referrals for separated and unaccompanied children from Ukraine.[18]

The emergency accommodation facilities were funded -from December 2021 until February 2023- through a grant from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From March 2023, they are funded by the Swiss Government and the Ministry of Migration and Asylum within the framework of the Swiss-Greek Cooperation Programme[19].

The National Emergency Response Mechanism is operated by the General Secretary for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection (former Special Secretary for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors – SSPUM) and supported by UNHCR (expert support), EUAA, IOM and the European Commission Its operation on the ground is carried out through NGOs Arsis, METAdrasi and the Network for Children’s Rights.[20] The Mechanism also includes a 24/7 telephone hotline for identifying and tracing children in need, which is available in six languages. The hotline provides guidance to children, citizens, local and public authorities on steps and actions to be taken from the point of identification of an unaccompanied child until his/her timely inclusion in emergency accommodation.[21] Since the end of March 2022, a procedure for the proper registration and protection of unaccompanied and separated children from Ukraine arriving in Greece has also been established by NERM.[22]

The total number of referrals of unaccompanied children received by the SGVP in 2023 were reported at 5,043, according to the sum of respective monthly statistics, marking a 21% decrease compared to the same period in 2022 (6,350).[23] At the same time, the number of accommodation spaces, specifically designated for unaccompanied minors was also slightly reduced, reaching a total of 2,203 places by the end 2023,[24] as opposed to 2,511 by the end of 2022.[25] Of these, almost 93% (2,048) were long-term accommodation (including SILs), while the rest (155) were temporary/emergency accommodation under the relevant mechanism established by the MoMA in April 2021.[26] Based on updates by EKKA, by the year’s end, the majority of referrals were for UAMs from Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria and Egypt.[27]

In December 2022, the average waiting period for the placement of unaccompanied minors residing in island RICs to suitable accommodation places for UAMs was 13.77 days, marking almost a seven-day increase compared to 2021 (7.4 days). The relevant period for UAM in “protective custody” or in the RIC of Fylakio, Evros, was 6.5 days, marking a two-day increase compared to 2021 (4.7 days), albeit the average time of placement for UAM specifically in “protective custody” was 2.5 days. Lastly, the average time for the placement of UAM in a shelter was 6.5 days, similarly marking a slightly more than a two-day increase, compared to 2021 (4.1 days).[28] In all cases, despite the increases in average placement times, which could potentially be attributed to the increase in UAM referrals throughout 2022 (34.4%), the SSPUM’s data seem to re-affirm improvements in this field if compared to previous years, which should continue to ensure that all UAM have timely access to suitable reception.

Of the total UAM referred, 4,450 were boys, in most cases older than 15 (3,820), while 601 were girls, in most cases similarly older than 15 (462).[29]

Nevertheless, challenges remained regarding the proper identification of UAM upon arrival, and consequently, cases where UAM have been accommodated alongside the adult population continued to be observed in 2023, at least on the islands, amongst others due to the lack of specialised medical staff.[30] For the situation of UAMs see also the chapter on Guarantees for Vulnerable Groups.

The lack of appropriate care, including accommodation for unaccompanied children, in Greece has been repeatedly raised by human rights bodies.[31] In 2019, in the context of his visit to the Lesvos, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees stated he was ‘very worried about children, especially children travelling alone…[who] are the most exposed to violence and exploitation”,[32] while Human Rights Watch inter alia noted that “the lack of prompt transfers [from the islands] put vulnerable people, including people with invisible disabilities and children, at higher risk of abuse and violation of their rights”.[33]

On 9 June 2022 the UN Child Rights Committee (CRC) issued its Concluding Observations on Greece, reviewed during its 90th session. The Committee raised serious concerns, among others, regarding the detention of children for identification purposes, inappropriate age determination procedures, the precarious living conditions in the RICs on the Aegean islands and the lack of access to food and healthcare.[34]

In November 2018, ECRE and ICJ, with the support of GCR lodged a collective complaint before the European Committee for Social Rights of the Council of Europe with regards the situation of inter alia unaccompanied children in Greece.[35] In response to the complaint, in May 2019, the Committee on Social Rights exceptionally decided to indicate immediate measures to Greece to protect the rights of migrant children and to prevent serious and irreparable injury or harm to the children concerned, including damage to their physical and mental health, and to their safety, by inter alia removing them from detention and from Reception and Identification Centres (RICs) at the borders.[36]

Furthermore, in December 2019, in a case represented by GCR, in cooperation with ASGI, Still I Rise and Doctors Without Borders, the ECtHR, under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court, granted interim measures to five unaccompanied asylum-seeking teenagers who had been living for many months in the Reception and Identification Centre (RIC) and in the “jungle” of Samos. The interim measures ordered the Greek authorities to arrange for their timely transfer to a centre for unaccompanied minors and to ensure that their reception conditions were compatible with Article 3 of the Convention (prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment) and the applicants’ particular status.[37]

Moreover, in the recent case of T.K. v. Greece (Application no. 16112/20) of 18 January 2024 represented by Refugee Law Clinic Berlin (Germany) and supported by I Have Rights (Samos), the ECtHR held that there has been a violation of articles 3 and 8 of the ECHR in the case of an unaccompanied child on Samos, whose wrong registration as an adult and the failure to correct his age violated his right to respect for private and family life (article 8 ECHR). Moreover, according to the Court, the living conditions of the applicant amounted to inhumane and degrading treatment, in violation of article 3 of the ECHR.[38]

In March 2020, a number of EU Member States accepted to relocate about 1,600 unaccompanied children from Greece.[39] Despite the fact that the number of children to be relocated remains significantly low, compared to the number of unaccompanied children present in Greece (3,776 children as of 15 April 2021[40]), this is a welcome initiative and tangible display of responsibility sharing that facilitates UAM’s access to durable solutions.

The first relocation under the scheme took place on 15 April 2020, with the first 12 UAM being relocated from Greece to Luxemburg, after previously having stayed for months in the overcrowded, unsuitable and unsafe RICs of Lesvos, Samos, and Chios. As noted by the Regional Director of IOM at the time ‘[t]he importance of this crucial initiative is amplified now due to the challenges we are all facing from COVID-19. Relocation of vulnerable children especially at a time of heightened hardship, sends a strong message of European solidarity and we hope to see this expand soon’.[41]

From April 2020 until December 2022, a total of 1,313 UAM had been relocated to other EU member states, most of them to Germany, France, Portugal and Finland.[42] During 2022, a total of 113 UAMs were transferred on 13 flights to France and Portugal, while three flights to Portugal, with a total of 28 UAMs took place in December 2022.[43] The relocation scheme has been extended in an attempt to meet the total number of pledges made by Member States.[44] By 30 March 2023, a total of 1,368 out of the 1,600 relocation pledges for UAM had been successfully implemented, primarily to France (501), Portugal (380), Germany (204) and Finland (111).[45]

Types of accommodation for unaccompanied children

As per data provided by the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection operating under the MoMA,[46] out of the 2,203 total available places for unaccompanied children in Greece by the end of 2023, 1,808 were in 63 shelters, 240 were in 60 Supported Independent Living apartments (SILs) for UAM over the age of 16, and 155 places were in 4 emergency accommodation facilities operating under the National Emergency Response Mechanism (NERM).

As per the same data, during the same time (31.12.2023), out of the total 2,000 UAM estimated to be in Greece on 1 January 2024, 1,462 resided in shelters, 174 in SILs, 128 in emergency accommodation under the NERM, and 236 in (mainland) RICs and (island) CCACs, highlighting an ongoing divergence between the available, dedicated places for UAM and those actually in use.

Shelters for unaccompanied children: long-term accommodation facilities for unaccompanied children (shelters) are managed primarily by civil society entities and charities.

Source: Information provided by the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection on 6 March 2024.

Supported Independent Living (SIL): “Supported Independent Living for unaccompanied minors” is an alternative housing arrangement for unaccompanied children aged 16 to 18 launched in 2018. The programme includes housing and a series of services (education, health etc.) and aims to enable the smooth coming of age and integration to Greek society.[47]

Source: Information provided by General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection on 6 March 2024.

Emergency Accommodation Facilities are temporary accommodation places, for unaccompanied children who are traced living homeless or in precarious living conditions, operating under the National Emergency Response Mechanism (NERM) and run by IOM. The Emergency Accommodation Facilities provide an immediate assessment of the best interest of UAMs and a comprehensive protection, including the provision of psychosocial, legal and medical support and the referral to long-term accommodation shelters[48].

Source: Information provided by the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection on 6 March 2024.

According to the data provided by the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection regarding the period 1.1.2023-31.12.2023, the average waiting time for the placement of UAMs to a shelter was 4.5 days and 0.7 days for the UAMs living in precarious conditions. Furthermore, for UAMs living in conditions of restriction of freedom in protective custody or in CCACs, the average waiting time for their placement in a shelter was 0.4 and 7.7 days respectively[49].

[1] Article 62 (1) Asylum Code in combination with article 1λγ΄ of the same law.

[2] Article 62 (2) Asylum Code, citing Article 41 of the same law.

[3] Article 40 Asylum Code.

[4] MSF, Constructing Crisis at Europe’s Borders: The EU plan to intensify its dangerous hotspot approach on Greek islands, June 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3WfEpY5. 

[5] MSF, Ελλάδα: Εν μέσω αυξημένων αφίξεων, οι Γιατροί Χωρίς Σύνορα καταγράφουν σημαντικά κενά στην πρόσβαση των αιτούντων άσυλο σε υπηρεσίες υγείας στη Λέσβο, 1 September 2023, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/44hwvunn.

[6] Joint Statement of 20 civil society organisations, NOT AGAIN IN 2024 – Call for upholdinghuman rightsin the Samos Closed Controlled Access Centre, 31 January 2024, p. 1-4, available at: https://tinyurl.com/3dxhybnk; for more information regarding health and vulnerabilities witnessed on Samos and Lesvos arrivals see: MSF, In plain sight – The Human Cost of Migration Policies and Violent Practices at Greek Sea Borders, 2 November 2023, pp. 12-13, available at: https://tinyurl.com/m63dcr7d.  

[7] I Have Rights, They are killing minds – Life in the Samos Closed Controlled Access Centre, 20 June 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/565hmbzb.

[8] Ibid., p. 5.

[9] Ibid., p. 10.

[10] MSF, Constructing Crisis at Europe’s Borders: The EU plan to intensify its dangerous hotspot approach on Greek islands, June 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3tVzwFg; FRA, Migration: Key fundamental rights concerns – Bulletin 2 – 2021, September 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3LopAcY.

[11] Information shared by Chios UNCHR Field Office during GCR mission (January 2024).

[12] I have Rights, Press Release, Young mother successfully sues the Greek Government for the treatment she suffered as a pregnant woman in the ‘hotspot’ on Samos, available at: https://bit.ly/3Wdfpkc; see also judgements of the ECtHR published on 23 November 2023 on cases M.L. v. Greece (Application no 8386/20) and M.B. v. Greece (Application no 8389/20) where the Court found again a violation of article 3 of the ECHR on account of the conditions in the Samos hotspot, which amounted to inhumane and degrading treatment. These cases were also supported by Refugee Law Clinic Berlin (Germany), I Have Rights (Samos) and PRO ASYL Foundation: I Have Rights, Press Release, The European Court of Human Rights again condemns the living conditions of asylum seekers on Samos, 11 January 2024, available at: https://tinyurl.com/s8ce44mk.

[13] Article 1(3) P.D.18/2020, Gov. Gazette 34/Α/19-2-2020.

[14] MoMA, General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection, available at: https://tinyurl.com/2u63bw7y. 

[15] MoMA / General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection, Situation Update: Unaccompanied Children (UAC) in Greece, 1 January 2024, p. 1, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/yksp4rzu.

[16] Ibid., p. 2.

[17] IOM, Newsletter IOM Greece, November-December 2023, p. 1, available at: https://tinyurl.com/3ep73ks2.

[18] MoMA / General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection, Situation Update: Unaccompanied Children (UAC) in Greece (in greek), op. cit., p. 1.

[19] IOM, Newsletter IOM Greece, op. cit.

[20] Interreg Europe, National Emergency Response Mechanism (NERM) in Greece, 16 November 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/2ryp53cs; see also, European Crime Prevention Network (EUCPN), National Emergency Response Mechanism¸available at: https://tinyurl.com/mvv8ntvp.

[21] General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection, available at: https://tinyurl.com/2u63bw7y;  see also, UNHCR, Greece launches national tracing and protection mechanism for unaccompanied children in precarious conditions, 6 April 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3uBRICI.

[22] Interreg Europe, op. cit.; see also, MoMA / SSPUAM, National Emergency Response Mechanism –  A safety net for unaccompanied children identified in precarious living conditions, November 2022, p. 10, available at:  https://tinyurl.com/2msh79hc.

[23] MoMA / General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection, Situation Update: Unaccompanied Children (UAC) in Greece, op.cit. p. 3.

[24] For 2023 data see ibid., p. 1; data for 2022 was made available via a written reply by the SSPUM to GCR request for statistics on 16 February 2023.

[25] AIDA, Country Report: Greece, 2021 Update, May 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3MRVkLf, p. 194.

[26] Data provided by the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection on 6 March 2024.

[27] MoMA / General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection, Situation Update: Unaccompanied Children (UAC) in Greece, op. cit., p. 1.

[28] Written reply by the SSPUM to GCR request for statistics on 16 February 2023. See also, AIDA, Country Report: Greece, 2021 Update, op. cit., p. 194.

[29] Written reply by the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection to GCR’s request for statistics on 6 March 2024.

[30] GCR & Oxfam, Lesbos Bulletin: Update on Lesbos and the Aegean Islands, by the Greek Council for Refugees & Oxfam, March 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3YEXp0H, p. 5.

[31] -See, e.g., UNHCR, Lone children face insecurity on the Greek islands, 14 October 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/36XQ6pf.

[32] Euronews, U.N. refugees chief urges Greece to improve ‘miserable’ camp conditions, 27 November 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/2vWsjt3.

[33] HRW, Human Rights Watch Submission to the United Nations Committee against Torture on Greece, p. 4 July 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/2S5ewch.

[34] UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations on the combined fourth to sixth reports of Greece, 28 June 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3xTHfYR, and UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Press release UN Child Rights Committee issues findings on Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Djibouti, Greece, Iceland, Kiribati, Somalia and Zambia, 9 June 2022, available at: http://bit.ly/3OaDu42.

[35] Council of Europe, New complaint registered concerning Greece, 21 December 2018, available at: https://bit.ly/2SG0FpF.

[36] European Committee of Social Rights, Decision on admissibility and on immediate measures in the case International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) v. Greece, Complaint No. 173/2018, 23 May 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/39clrGj.

[37] GCR, The European Court of Human Rights provides interim measures to unaccompanied minors living in the RIC and the ‘jungle’ of Samos island, 30 December 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/2GYQY2p.

[38] I Have Rights, European Court of Human Rights Condemns Greece’s Treatment of an Unaccompanied Child on Samos, 18 January 2024, available at: https://bit.ly/44dJNNg.

[39] EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Intervention (via video conference) in European Parliament LIBE Committee on the situation at the Union’s external borders in Greece, 2 April 2020, available at: https://tinyurl.com/mwctyp4h.

[40] EKKA, Situation Update: Unaccompanied Children (UAC) in Greece, 15 April 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3vpPEMR.

[41] IOM, UNHCR & UNICEF, UN agencies welcome first relocation of unaccompanied children from Greece, 15 April 2020, available at: https://bit.ly/2Pv0BNY.

[42] Special Secretary for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors (SSPUM), Action Report 2022, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3IKZmCB, and MoMA, Press Release «Συνεχίζεται το Πρόγραμμα Εθελοντικής Μετεγκατάστασης – 1.313 ασυνόδευτα παιδιά έχουν μεταφερθεί σε άλλες χώρες κράτη–μέλη της ΕΕ», 20 December 2022, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3ILcbgn.

[43] MoMA, Press Release «Συνεχίζεται το Πρόγραμμα Εθελοντικής Μετεγκατάστασης – 1.313 ασυνόδευτα παιδιά έχουν μεταφερθεί σε άλλες χώρες κράτη-μέλη της ΕΕ», 20 December 2022, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3ILcbgn.

[44] GCR & SCI, Children on the move, Bimonthly update, November-December 2021, available at: https://tinyurl.com/4sxevu3t. 

[45] IOM, Voluntary Scheme For The Relocation from Greece to Other European Countries (infographic), 30 March 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/46rwcpzu.

[46] Data provided by the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection on 6 March 2024.

[47] Metadrasi, Supported Independent Living for unaccompanied minors, available at: https://bit.ly/2tPEljv.

[48] MoMA / 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/2msh79hc. 

[49] Data provided by the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection on 6 March 2024.