No Safe Haven 159 This conclusion can be understood as a sharp criticism in regard to a violation of children’s rights in Greece in the light of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. According to this UN Convention on children’s rights, the basic rights, physical and psychological needs, and best interests of all children in the country (including foreign children) should be respected by any government and its administration.36 The child’s basic right of well-being is explicitly not linked to any legal status in the residence country, making their well-being an acknowledged basic right of undocumented (or illegally present) foreign children as well.37 The common treatment of arresting and detaining minors in completely insufficient facilities is clearly not in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, but used to be everyday practice in the reception of boat people on Lesbos (and still is on other Greek border islands). Squeezing them in a warehouse building shrouded in barbed wire hardly seems to be an adequate treatment meeting the best interests of babies, toddlers, school children, and adolescent minors who deserve shelter and international protection. Since all foreigners regardless of their age are detained after entering the national territory without authorization, Greece clearly disregards the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, despite the fact that it agreed to respect it. By doing so, the Greek state adds to the complex mix of unlawful acts involved in international transit migration a national component ignoring the individual needs and best interests of undocumented foreign children. Although changes in the reception structure of irregular migrants are under discussion, the Greek authorities do not comment on this problematic and ongoing practice of detaining children along with several hundred undocumented adults. Even if the Lesbos detention centre is temporarily closed, the question remains whether a newly opened reception centre will be more sensitive to the individual needs of children and unaccompanied minors. Prior to the temporary closing of the centre, the bureaucratic machinery had reached an administrative decision to provide the immigration detainee with a Greek document after he or she had been detained for a maximum period of six months. Stamped and signed by the local authorities, the document was nothing but a deportation order, asking the immigrant to leave the country within thirty days (Lauth Bacas 2006). It is worth noting that according to information giv36 37 Convention on the Rights of the Child. Adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, Resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989. According to Article 2 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, states shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.