I. Unaccompanied Child Migrants and Asylum Seekers in Greece By the end of 2008, approximately 1,000 separated and unaccompanied children— that is, children separated from their parents or customary caregiver but not necessarily from other adult relatives, and children unaccompanied by a relative or another adult customarily or legally responsible for their care—will have entered Greece during the year. A few will have applied for asylum, most will not. Many will come into contact with the state by being caught by the police and subsequently served with a deportation order. For the purposes of this report, we refer to all of them as unaccompanied children. The figure of 1,000 is an estimate based on a mix of sources—UNHCR, various Greek government departments and service-providing NGOs.7 Human Rights Watch was unable to obtain a definitive official figure on the number of unaccompanied children in Greece, and authorities do not publish a break-down by age of the number of persons who are caught in Greece without legal status.8 Although a migrant apprehended by the police is typically registered, the police also often fail to identify correctly whether a person is a child and if so whether unaccompanied. What is striking is that official sources contradict themselves as well as each other— and no single body appears to be responsible for maintaining a clear overview tracking children in need of protection. The fact that the authorities have no clear idea how many unaccompanied asylum-seeking or migrant children have come into contact with official bodies is highly indicative of the subject of this report: the 7 For example, based on reports by the UNHCR and the Greek Council for Refugees at least 200 unaccompanied children entered Greece between April and June 2008: 70, including 50 Somali children, entered through the Evros border region, around 60-70, mostly Afghan children, through Leros Island, and about 100 children, including 15 girls, through Lesvos Island. 8 The government compiles official figures on unaccompanied children who seek asylum but these have proven to be unreliable. On May 22, 2008, Constantinos Kordatos and Nik Stavrakakis of the Hellenic Police’s Aliens Division told Human Rights Watch that only 44 unaccompanied children sought asylum in 2007, compared to 124 unaccompanied children in 2006, 158 in 2005, and 302 in 2004. A UNHCR-commissioned study showed that these figures contradict other official sources (see Papageorgiu and Dimitropoulou, Unaccompanied Minors Study, pp. 20-21). Official figures also contradict those compiled by the three main NGOs who work with asylum seekers: the Greek Council for Refugees, the Hellenic Red Cross and the Ecumenical Refugee Program recorded that they assisted more than 200 unaccompanied children who sought asylum in 2007. Both the Greek Council for Refugees and UNHCR told Human Rights Watch that year on year fewer children are seeking asylum in Greece and that children who do not ask for asylum outnumber those who file an asylum application. A Greek Ministry of Interior presentation at the Justice and Home Affairs Council shows that in 2007, 112,364 persons had been arrested for illegal entry or presence in Greece (presentation on file with Human Rights Watch, given on April, 18, 2008, in Luxemburg.) Left to Survive 10