FORGOTTEN Administratively detained irregular migrants and asylum seekers avoid the detention of minors. Minors who have been separated from their families and unaccompanied minors shall not be detained as a rule. Only in very exceptional cases, unaccompanied minors who applied for international protection while in detention according to the relevant provisions of Law 3386/2005 and Law 3907/2011, may remain in detention as a last resort solution, only to ensure that they are safely referred to appropriate accommodation facilities for minors. This detention is exclusively imposed for the necessary time required for the safe referral to appropriate accommodation facilities, and cannot exceed twenty-five (25) days. When, due to exceptional circumstances, such as the significant increase in arrivals of unaccompanied minors and, despite the reasonable efforts by competent authorities, it is not possible to provide for their safe referral to appropriate accommodation facilities, detention may be prolonged for another twenty (20) days. Minors who have been separated from their families and unaccompanied minors shall be detained separately from adult detainees». According to the Standards of European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: «The CPT considers that every effort should be made to avoid resorting to the deprivation of liberty of an irregular migrant who is a minor. Following the principle of the “best interests of the child”, as formulated in Article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, detention of children, including unaccompanied and separated children, is rarely justified and, in the Committee’s view, can certainly not be motivated solely by the absence of residence status. When, exceptionally, a child is detained, the deprivation of liberty should be for the shortest possible period of time; all efforts should be made to allow the immediate release of unaccompanied or separated children from a detention facility and their placement in more appropriate care. Furthermore, because of the vulnerable nature of a child, additional safeguards should apply whenever a child is detained, particularly in those cases where the children are separated from their parents or other carers, or are unaccompanied, without parents, carers or relatives45». 45 Council of Europe, CPT Standards, CPT/Inf/E (2002) 1- Rev. 2011, page 81-82 73