The juvenile prosecutor in Athens, for example, told Human Rights Watch that her mandate was strictly limited to “signing the proposal for a permanent guardian” and that it was the responsibility of NGOs to find suitable guardians.75 She explained that she did not have sufficient resources for this mandate, besides her other responsibilities for juvenile offenders and child victims of crimes.76 Both she and the deputy prosecutor in Orestiada were of the view that they could not act on behalf of a child in administrative detention. “It is very hard to say this, but legally these children don’t exist. Because they are in an administrative procedure they are out of my jurisdiction,” the deputy prosecutor in Orestiada told us.77 The Athens prosecutor for juveniles held that she could only take action on behalf of the child if the child had committed an offense.78 This view that prosecutors cannot act on behalf of children in an administrative procedure is shared by some police officials. The police director of the Aliens’ division in Attica told us, “Because asylum is an administrative procedure there is no role for the prosecutor. The prosecutor usually gives orders to an NGO or anybody else to help the child.”79 A child needs the guardian’s consent to enroll in school. We were told that the temporary guardianship system does not function to the extent that there is no legal way to enroll an unaccompanied child in a school in Athens. NGOs have resorted to informal ways of enrolling children. The Greek Council for Refugees, for example, asserts that it is the permanent guardian for the child in order to enroll the child. 80 75 A recent UNHCR sponsored study found that children have been unable to enroll in school because their temporary guardian did not consider this to be part of his or her mandate, Papageorgiu and Dimitropoulou, Unaccompanied Minors Study, p.77. 76 Human Rights Watch interview with Sylla Papataksiarhi, prosecutor for juveniles, Athens, June 12, 2008. 77 Human Rights Watch interview with Filippos Karatsidis, deputy prosecutor, Orestiada, May 26, 2008. 78 Human Rights Watch interview with Sylla Papataksiarhi, prosecutor for juveniles, Athens, June 12, 2008. 79 Human Rights Watch interview with Yiorgos Paliouras, police director, Aliens’ Division of Attica, Athens, June 3, 2008. 80 Human Rights Watch interview with Alexandros Anastasiou, coordinator, social services department, Athens, June 6, 2008. See also, Papageorgiu and Dimitropoulou, Unaccompanied Minors Study, pp.75-84. Human Rights Watch was told that permanent guardians on Kalymnos and Samos Islands who were appointed by court had been able to find solutions for children’s specific needs and in the child’s best interests. Email correspondence from Panayotis Papadimitriou to Human Rights Watch, August 29, 2008. 27 Human Rights Watch December 2008