Child welfare

Police in northern Greece say migrants at a holding site near the country's border with Turkey have staged violent protests following weeks of delays in processing their asylum claims due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Authorities said the protests also involved unaccompanied minors at the closed facility which currently houses some 250 asylum seekers. No injuries were reported.

In 2019, 13 800 asylum seekers applying for international protection in the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU) were considered to be unaccompanied minors, nearly 20% fewer than in 2018 (16 800), continuing the downward trend that started after the peak year 2015 (92 000). In 2019, at the EU level, unaccompanied minors accounted for 7% of all asylum applicants aged less than 18.

Greece's Alternate Migration Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos and Britain's minister for immigration compliance, Chris Philp, on Wednesday signed a bilateral plan aimed at boosting cooperation in responding to irregular migration.

Greece transferred a dozen unaccompanied children from overcrowded migrant camps to Luxembourg on Wednesday, the first of more than 1,000 relocations that are being expedited amid concerns over the impact of coronavirus on vulnerable groups.

The Migration Ministry submitted its five-point draft bill on migration for public consultation on Friday. The consultation will last until April 24.

The bill provides for speeding up the processing and approval/rejection of asylum applications, the creation of closed controlled structures on the islands, and the legal requirements for the latter's new operating framework.

The resettlement procedure for unaccompanied minors from Greek reception and identification facilities to other European Union states will begin next week. 

The plan foresees that 12 will head to Luxembourg next Wednesday and another 50 to Germany two days later.

A plan is under way to relocate at least 1,600 unaccompanied minors from Greek refugee camps to several European Unon countries, European Commission spokesman Jahnz Adalbert has said.

The relocation was decided on March 6 but has been delayed by the spread of the coronavirus. 

A group of European Union countries has agreed to take in at least 1,600 migrant children in Greece traveling without their parents, with the first unaccompanied minors likely to find homes in Luxembourg as soon as next week, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said Friday.

Greek authorities were transferring around 570 migrants from an overcrowded camp on the island of Lesvos on Sunday, officials said.

A regularly scheduled ferry left Lesvos Sunday evening carrying the migrants, who used to live in the migrant camp of Moria.

The Labor and Social Affairs Ministry is seeking ways to improve living conditions for thousands of refugee children staying in Greece without a parent or guardian as they wait to either be granted asylum or reunited with family in other parts of Europe.