Child migration

Fewer than a third of unaccompanied children succeeded in winning asylum in Greece last year, with the rest of the applications rejected or in limbo, aid agency Save the Children said in calling for better protection of those most vulnerable.

Nineteen organizations have signed an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis calling for the protection of unaccompanied child migrants.
The letter highlighted that these children "are lacking in adequate hospitality structures, but also in a holistic system for child protection."

Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn has called for other EU countries to take in 4,000 unaccompanied child migrants from Greece and that if EU countries refuse to take their fair share EU funding should be withheld.

Greece has an estimated 4,800 unaccompanied children

Asselborn knows the EU better than most as he has been serving in his current post since 2004.

On the occasion of International Migrants Day on 18 December, the European Commission and the High Representative made the following statement:

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has outlined a program to support some 4,000 unaccompanied minors among refugees and migrants living in Greece.

Shocking data have emerged from a recent study of unaccompanied child migrants entitled "Children as prey: Exclusion and exploitation of unaccompanied child-migrants in Greece, Italy, and Spain".

UNICEF and the European Union have launched a joint project to support more than 6000 refugee and migrant children, including unaccompanied minors, across Greece.

The initiative, which comes amid harsh weather conditions in Greece, aims to help keep refugee and migrant safe and cared for, and give them access to child protection and educational services.

More than 1,200 unaccompanied child migrants are on waiting lists for a spot at one of the country's special hostels for vulnerable children, aid workers told a seminar organized by Doctors of the World in Athens Friday.

France moved hundreds of child migrants from the site of a demolished camp to reception centers across the country on Nov. 2, as a feud with Britain over who takes care of the youths dragged on.