alternatives to detention that fulfil the best interests of the child’ (paragraphs 78 and 79).’ 66 Greek legislation permits the detention of children ‘… only in exceptional cases … as a last resort solution, only to ensure that they are safely referred to appropriate accommodation facilities for minors’. 67 However, in practice children are often detained when alternatives exist. Detention of children includes detention when their family members are also detained (i.e., when the whole family is subject to detention), and detention of unaccompanied minors. In the first instance, families with children are often detained despite decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights which indicate that this should not happen. 68 Usually, the detention of children alongside family members happens in the context of migration controls. Unaccompanied minors have been detained in Greece under the status of ‘protective custody’, which has been harshly criticized for various reasons: 1. In practical terms, it entails detention in a police station under conditions even worse than those provided in Pre-Removal Centres. 2. There is no time limit on the duration of protective custody, although it does not usually last for more than a few days. 3. There is no appeal process to question the validity of a decision to place a child in protective custody. The European Court of Human Rights found in 2019 that automatic detention of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers under protective custody in police stations did not take into consideration the best interests of the child and thus violated Article 5(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (Right to Liberty and Security). 69 It is also often in violation of Article 3 of the Convention due to the conditions of ‘protective custody’ in police stations. 70 More recently, on 26 January 2021, the European Committee of Social Rights ruled on a complaint by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), finding that detention of unaccompanied migrant children under the ‘protective custody’ scheme is a violation of Article 17.1 of the European Social Charter (the right of children and young persons to social, legal and economic protection). 71 Under pressure from numerous decisions against the practice, a legislative initiative in 2020 abolished detention as a form of protective custody. 72 Despite this, protective custody for unaccompanied minors is still being used in Greece. According to the National Center for Social Solidarity (EKKA), on 15 August 2021 – eight months after the practice was abolished – there were 21 unaccompanied minors in protective custody (down from 28 the previous month). 73 20