ΑΛΛΗΛΕΓΓΥΗ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΕ: ΕΞΕΛΙΞΕΙΣ ΣΤΟ ΠΕΔΙΟ ΤΗΣ ΠΡΟΣΦΥΓΙΚΗΣ ΠΡΟΣΤΑΣΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΡΟΚΛΗΣΕΙΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΕ ΚΑΙ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ

Chara Katsigianni 215 panied children are detained in Reception and Identification centers and 54 are detained “in protective custody” 6 . Due to the lack of accommodation facilities for minors, (a) they are detained 7 in detention facilities or in police stations on the base of the “protective custody” 8 , waiting for their transfer to the shelters. Such detention can last for significant periods up to several months and takes place in unacceptable detention condi- tions or (b) they remain detained in closed and overcrowded Reception and Iden- tification centers which, inter alia, do not have substandard material conditions in terms of sanitation and hygiene, access to essential services such as health care or (c) they are trapped on the islands due to the imposition of the geographical limi- tation, reside in the hotspot facilities or in the makeshift camps 9 . Therefore, children are forced to live in conditions which constitute inhuman and degrading treatment; they are exposed to on-going risks of their life and physical integrity, including sexual exploitation and abuse, without any information about their rights, without access to the outdoors, without guardianship and legal as- sistance, which severely impact and traumatises their psychosocial well-being and causes them long-term mental health crises. 10 6. National Centre of Social Solidarity (EKKA), 31 December 2017, available at: https:// data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/61484, see also Growing number of unaccompanied refugee and migrant children in Greece in urgent need of shelter, care and protection, Athens/Geneva, 27 October 2017, available at: https://www.unicef. org/media/media_101396.html . 7. According to Article 46(10) (b) L 4375/2016, «[…] unaccompanied minors shall not be detained, as a rule […] Οnly in very exceptional cases [...] may remain in detention, as a last resort solution, only to ensure that they are safely referred to appropriate accommodation facilities for minors ». See also O.M. v Hungary (No. 9912/15), 5 July 2016, para. 42; Rahimi v Greece (No. 8687/08), 5 April 2011, paras 108-110, Before a decision on the detention of children is considered or taken there must be an assessment of the necessity and proportionality of the detention in the circumstances of the individual case. Detention should only be imposed as a measure of last resort after other less coercive measures have been examined. 8. As determined by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, detention can never ever be in the best interest of a child. Even under the guise of ‘protective custody’, it is utterly unacceptable for children to be administratively detained. 9. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/02/greece-huge-rise-detention-migrant-children . 10. As determined by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, detention can never ever be in the best interest of a child. Even under the guise of ‘protective custody’, it is utterly unacceptable for children to be administratively detained.