Unaccompanied minor

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.

A group of unaccompanied children from overcrowded migrant camps who will be transferred to Germany and Luxembourg, wear protective face masks as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) as they board a bus at the port of Piraeus, Wednesday. [Costas Baltas/Reuters]

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.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet agreed on Wednesday to accept 50 migrant children and youths from overcrowded camps on Greek islands, government sources said.

The move was a first step by Germany, officials said, as worries mount about the health situation in the Greek camps due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Germany plans to take in up to 50 unaccompanied minors staying at overcrowded refugee camps in Greece, while Luxembourg has agreed to accept 12, government officials said Tuesday.

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.

After Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said that Croatia was ready to take in some child refugees trapped in refugee camps on Greek islands, hostile comments on social networks condemned the idea, some claiming that parents and wider relatives would then accompany the children - some of whom might be extremists.

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.