Duration of Detention Human Rights Watch has not managed to identify any coherent rationale for why children are detained for longer or shorter periods. On Lesvos Island, where a majority of children interviewed by Human Rights Watch entered Greece, the length of their detention appears to be dependent on how many days prior to a “release day”–the day authorities process migrant’s release from detention–a child entered the country. The day Human Rights Watch visited Lesvos Island authorities released a group of unaccompanied boys who had spent between three and 12 days in detention.161 A care center for unaccompanied children opened on the island in July 2008 and offers police officials an alternative to detaining them. Despite this available alternative, authorities continue to hold children behind bars for several weeks and in conditions that are far below minimum standards.162 Twelve-year-old Sharzad P. and her 16-year-old brother Sardar P. from Afghanistan were detained in the Kyprinou facility in Fylakio when we interviewed them: We have been here for 65 days.… Someone informed us that we would stay here for three months, the police told me that. We don’t agree to stay for three months.… I want to be released and I don’t want to stay longer.163 Twelve-year-old Sharzad P. shared her cell with about six adult women with whom she was unable to communicate. Before being detained for more than two months in that facility, the two siblings told us they had been held in a border police station for 11 days. Their temporary guardian had not been informed164 during that time and the chief of police in Orestiada told us that migrants would usually spend only “two to three days” in border police stations. Twelve-year-old Sharzad P. described that 161 We were not granted access to the detention center on Lesvos Island despite several requests. 162 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with various contact persons in July, August and September 2008 (names withheld). We were not able to assess whether the detention of unaccompanied children on Samos Island goes beyond what is strictly necessary before they are transferred to Lesvos. In the absence of any care center on Samos Island, children’s detention could only be justified if it remains strictly limited in time and if authorities make a real effort to transfer children as quickly as possible to alternative care. 163 Human Rights Watch interview with Sharzad P. and Sardar P., Fylakio detention center, May 25, 2008. 164 Human Rights Watch interview with Filippos Karatzidis, deputy prosecutor, Orestiada, May 26, 2008. For a discussion of the guardianship system, see chapter II. 55 Human Rights Watch December 2008