Greek authorities registered over 3,300 unaccompanied asylum-seeking and migrant children arriving in Greece in the first seven months of 2016. Many of these children had fled violence and armed conflict in their home countries, including Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. However, Greece lacks suitable accommodation and a comprehensive protection system for child asylum seekers and migrants. These factors have led to the prolonged arbitrary detention of children—often in poor and degrading conditions while they await transfer to a dedicated shelter facility.

The Greek government considers the detention of unaccompanied children as a temporary protection measure 'in the child’s best interest', in accordance to European and international standards. However, Human Rights Watch found that children often face degrading conditions in police station cells and in Coast Guard facilities, and unsanitary conditions in pre-removal detention centres. In some cases, children said they were made to live and sleep in overcrowded, filthy, bug- and vermin-infested cells, sometimes without mattresses, and were deprived of appropriate sanitation, hygiene, privacy, protection and services they need and to which they are entitled.

Human Rights Watch calls on the Greek government to ensure there are sufficient and suitable alternatives to detention available for all unaccompanied children, and to adapt Greek law and policy to ensure that if children are detained, it is only under exceptional circumstances, for the shortest possible period of time, and in conditions that comply with international standards. The organisation also calls for the European Union to provide the necessary resources to support such efforts and member states to intensify their efforts to relocate asylum-seeking children out of Greece.

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