Child welfare

A Canadian court has ruled that the government harmed thousands of indigenous children who were robbed of their cultural heritage when it took them from their families. Launched eight years ago, the lawsuit could cost the government US$1bn.

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.

Turkey's Family and Social Policies Ministry is promoting "protective family service" throughout the country in order to provide for the care of children in need of protection in a family environment. 

In 2002, the number of children in need of foster care was just 520, but the number is now close to 5,000.

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.

A brawl broke out late Thursday between young migrants at an accommodation center for unaccompanied minors in Patras, western Greece.

According to the Praksis NGO, which has undertaken the operation of the center, the fight involved 15 teenagers and left one of them slightly injured.

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. 

Migration Minister Yiannis Mouzalas Tuesday inaugurated a new center for unaccompanied migrant minors in Paiania, east of Athens, saying the facility would host up to 100 children, while noting that hundreds of others remain in reception centers across the country.

Greek authorities face a range of problems in dealing with the refugee crisis, Immigration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas admitted in comments to Parliament on Friday while calling on opposition parties to back the government's efforts to tackle the crisis.

Authorities and humanitarian aid staff on the island of Lesvos were working on Tuesday to rebuild the Moria camp for migrants that was ruined in a large fire on Monday night.

Some 88,300 unaccompanied minors sought asylum in the European Union in 2015, 13 percent of them children younger than 14, crossing continents without their parents to seek a place of safety, EU data showed on Monday.