we want. These children are not detainees.”4 A police director in Igoumenitsa explained, “[a]part from being police officers, we are also parents…. Of course we agree children should not be handled by us, but for now it’s the best available option.”5 Indeed, Greek authorities attribute the use of detention to a shortage of alternatives to detention. According to Greece’s migration ministry, Greece has only 729 shelter spaces for unaccompanied children.6 As of August 2, all facilities were full, and 1,295 requests for placement were pending.7 The National Center for Social Solidarity (EKKA), the government authority responsible for managing the placement of unaccompanied children in shelters, received more than twice the number of requests for transfers of unaccompanied children to shelters in the first quarter of 2016 than in the first quarter of 2015. The shortage of shelter space is a chronic problem. Greek authorities have consistently and for years been urged to increase shelter capacity and develop other alternatives to detention.8 The Migration Ministry says it plans to double capacity to over 1,400 spaces in children’s shelters by the end of September 2016.9 As of June 22, 2016, the European Commission had allocated more than 170 million euro in emergency funding to Greece to help manage the refugee and humanitarian crisis, and contributed another 83 million to UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations to help Greece cope with the large number of refugees.10 The Greek government did not respond to 4 Human Rights Watch interview with Georgios Pantelakos, Brigadier Head of the Aliens Police Division of Thessaloniki, and Dimitrios Savvidis, police captain, Thessaloniki, June 28, 2016. 5 Human Rights Watch interview with Ilias Ntontis, Thesprotia Police Director, Igoumenitsa, July 1, 2016. 6 Letter from Markos Papakonstantis, legal advisor to Migration Minister Ioannis Mouzalas, to Human Rights Watch, August 9, 2016. 7 Letter from Maria Dimitropoulou, director, Office of Secretary General for Reception, to Human Rights Watch, undated, received August 9, 2016. 8 The calls have come from independent monitoring groups like Human Rights Watch, and also from international authorities such as the Committee on the Rights of the Child. See UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, “Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations, Greece,” CRC/C/GRC/CO2-3, August 13, 2012, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/co/CRC_C_GRC_CO_2-3.pdf (accessed July 31, 2016), para. 65. 9 Letter from Markos Papakonstantis, legal advisor, to Human Rights Watch, August 9, 2016. 10 European Commission, “Managing the Refugee Crisis: Financial Support to Greece,” July 22, 2016, http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/european-agenda-migration/backgroundinformation/docs/factsheet_managing_refugee_crisis_eu_financial_support_greece_update_22_july_en.pdf (accessed August 4, 2016). “WHY ARE YOU KEEPING ME HERE?” 10