percent of Greece’s asylum applications are processed.117 Fourteen-year-old Lal S. told Human Rights Watch that he gave up trying to submit an asylum application there after several unsuccessful attempts to enter the building: “I tried many times to get the red card.118 They give the red card only on Sundays and we couldn’t enter. We tried several times but we gave up.”119 Similarly, 17-year-old Musa M. told Human Rights Watch that he had spent three nights waiting in line: I got the red card at Petrou Ralli station. To receive it I had to go several times. I went three times during the night. We went there at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. on Saturday night to keep the place in the queue. Maybe it was the sixth or seventh time that I managed to enter. Because I was small I was pushing so I managed to get inside.120 Sixteen-year-old Hamed P. recounted how he had to clear the street of rubbish left by those in the queue in order to be able to apply for asylum: When I went to the police station there were 700 persons at the police station. I arrived at 4 a.m. and waited in line. There were more than 400 who went inside.… The police told us to clean the street and then we would be taken inside the police station. At that time the weather was cold so some people had brought cardboard, blankets, and made fires while waiting so we cleaned everything. We were 15 persons. Then they gave us a small paper with an appointment.121 Sixteen-year-old Ali N. arrived alone at Athens airport from an African country in February 2008. He tried to apply for asylum at the passport counter but didn’t speak any Greek or English. He told us that he was taken into detention at the Petrou Ralli detention center for two months instead. He said he was not given an opportunity to 117 Papageorgiu and Dimitropoulou, Unaccompanied Minors Study, p. 38. Human Rights Watch went to the Petrou Ralli station on a Sunday morning. Authorities accept three hundred persons for appointments but the queue was at least three times larger than the number of persons accepted. 118 The red card is commonly used to describe the red colored documentation for asylum seekers. 119 Human Rights Watch interview with Lal S., Athens, May 27, 2008. 120 Human Rights Watch interview with Musa M., Athens, May 28, 2008. 121 Human Rights Watch interview with Hamed P., Athens, June 4, 2008. 43 Human Rights Watch December 2008