GREECE:
Greece is presently dealing with a “youngsters’s emergency” because of the rising variety of unaccompanied minors arriving within the nation, notably alongside a brand new trafficking route from Libya to Crete.
This alarming scenario has led non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to induce Greek authorities to take instant motion to make sure the security and safety of those youngsters.
The NGOs are calling for the creation of secure areas and the switch of minors to protected shelters or different EU member states.
Sofia Kouvelaki, the top of the Dwelling Mission, a refugee assist group in Athens, emphasised that Greece is dealing with a disaster not seen in years. “What we’re seeing quantities to a youngsters’s emergency of the type that we haven’t witnessed in years,” Kouvelaki acknowledged.
Based on the UN refugee company (UNHCR), the variety of little one arrivals in 2024 has greater than doubled in comparison with the earlier 12 months.
In November alone, 13,000 minors arrived in Greece by sea, and landings by unaccompanied and separated youngsters have risen sharply, from 1,490 in 2023 to about 3,000 this 12 months. “There are an enormous variety of children turning up on boats each day and an pressing want for the creation of extra secure areas to deal with them,” Kouvelaki added.
The latest inflow contains exceptionally younger youngsters from international locations like Syria and Egypt. Support teams reported that many youngsters arriving in Greece are with out fundamental requirements comparable to clothes and footwear and have restricted entry to important companies.
Greece’s migration minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, predicted that the stress on Greece’s migration routes would proceed into 2025, citing ongoing geopolitical unrest and the local weather disaster. “The in depth geopolitical unrest in our broader area… is forcing many to desert their houses merely to outlive,” he mentioned, noting that by the top of 2024, 60,000 persons are anticipated to have entered Greece.
The scenario has been exacerbated by the Greek authorities’s migration insurance policies. Cuts to funding for protecting shelters have left an estimated 1,500 unaccompanied minors with no satisfactory housing or assist.
Overcrowding in state-run reception services has led to rising studies of violence and abuse. One notably troubling incident concerned an Egyptian teenager being gang-raped, crushed, and burned by a number of people on the Malakasa refugee camp close to Athens, prompting widespread outrage.
Deputy migration minister Sofia Voultepsi expressed shock over the assault, acknowledging the presence of Egyptian minors on the camp, a lot of whom had been allegedly concerned in organized crime.
She defined that traffickers usually goal the poorest villages in Egypt, tricking households into sending their youngsters to Europe beneath the pretense of serving to them work.
These youngsters are then subjected to excessive situations in camps and are sometimes trafficked by way of Libya to Greece.
NGOs, together with Save the Youngsters, have expressed issues about Greece’s reception system, citing overcrowding and significant shortages in fundamental companies, comparable to interpreters and guardians, which have left youngsters susceptible.
In addition they highlighted the delays in EU funds for shelters, exacerbating the already dire situations. Lefteris Papagiannakis, director of the Greek Council for Refugees, criticized the federal government for the continued failure to deal with these points regardless of vital monetary investments.
In response, Greek officers have introduced that efforts are underway so as to add 500 new areas in shelters for kids, although funding stays a problem.
Save the Youngsters’s Europe director, Willy Bergogne, known as for pressing motion to guard youngsters fleeing humanitarian crises. “Reception centres meant to shelter them have been locations of concern and isolation, with violence, alarming dwelling situations, and a scarcity of assist companies,” Bergogne mentioned.
He urged the EU and Greek authorities to behave instantly to enhance situations and prioritize little one safety.