VIII. Returns and Deportations Unaccompanied children who enter Greece without valid documents and do not ask for asylum are issued deportation orders. Authorities issue such orders without tracing the child’s family, without determining the child’s best interest, without assessing who will take care of the child upon return, and without enabling the child to legally challenge such a decision. Greece has a track record of deporting unaccompanied children without any safeguards, especially to Albania, many of whom were believed to have been re-trafficked upon return.319 The Ministry of Interior issued a total of 12,904 deportation orders to children in 2007 and the first half of 2008. Out of these, 2,599 deportations were carried out.320 We only received separate deportation statistics for unaccompanied children who have previously made an asylum application but not for unaccompanied children who never filed an asylum claim. The Ministry informed us that 76 unaccompanied children who had sought asylum were deported in 2007; this figure rose to 119 for the first seven months of 2008.321 Deportations from Greece Deportation procedures in law do not differentiate between unaccompanied children and adults. Greek law provides that an alien without valid documentation can be 319 The Committee on the Rights of the Child noted in 2002 that expulsion of street children had taken place without regard as to their best interest. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, “Summary Record of the 754th Meeting.” CRC/C/SR.754, September 13, 2002, para. 48. The UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography raised serious concerns after his mission to Greece in 2005 that deportation of children remained the rule and their protection an exception. UN Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Juan Miguel Petit, Mission to Greece, E/CN.4/2006/67/Add.3, March 27, 2006, para. 35. The Greek Ombudsman, in a special report issued in 2005, highlighted a range of children’s rights violation that were the consequence of the government’s practice of issuing deportation orders and enforcing deportation to countries that cooperate. George Moschos, Keynote Speech, Council of Europe Regional Conference on “Migration of Unaccompanied Minors: Acting in the Best Interests of the Child,” October 27-28, 2005, MG-RCONF (2005) 27e, p. 27. 320 The Deputy Minister of the Interior made these figures public on August 11, 2008, in a reply to a parliamentary question. A copy of the reply is on file with Human Rights Watch. 321 Facsimile from Constantinos Kordatos, Commander Aliens Division, Hellenic Police Headquarters to Human Rights Watch, October 1, 2008. The facsimile does not clarify whether these children had been refused refugee status or had otherwise dropped out of asylum procedures. Left to Survive 94