2.6. The Lack of protection for unaccompanied minors are not properly informed about the exams they undergo or the procedure. Furthermore they were not informed about the result of the medical examinations they underwent, the considerable margin of error was not evaluated and they do According to Praksis, a Greek NGO running a not have the chance to challenge such a decision. program concerning minors in the port of Patras, One of the minors interviewed, clearly told us that from September 2011 until today (June 2012) they although he saw that the age written down on his were contacted by the Greek port authorities in 19 paper in the hospital by the doctor, stated that he cases of readmitted unaccompanied minors. is 16 years old, he was readmitted back to Greece. In general, most of the returned unaccompanied minors are Afghans. According to what most of the interviewees stated, the Italian authorities usually estimate the age of those arriving at the Italian ports by “looking at the person”. We have been told repeatedly of minor cases being registered as adults. In one case, we were informed about a 10– years old minor, who was readmitted from Bari to Patras in November 2011, registered by the Italian authorities as an 18 years old! In some other cases allegedly, even when the children clearly said that they were minors, they were not registered as such. It seems as if the age determination depends exclusively on the discretion of the Italian authorities. In another case, a minor allegedly showed his documents from Greece proofing his age and the Italian officers tore it up. Others told us, that they were not even asked about their age by the authorities. An unaccompanied minor who had been readmitted once in the past described that on his second attempt he arrived at the port of Venice, and was ‘lucky’ this time, since he was severely injured upon his arrival by a truck which drove over him. He assumes that due to his injuries and his consequent stay in a hospital, he was not readmitted at that time.27 In those rare cases, minors reported that they were transferred to the hospital for medical examination, a wrist X-ray was also taken.28 Children 27 Field-notes: April 17 and April 18, 2012 28 The use of X-rays and other methods that expose minors to useless and dangerous radiation is highly problematic from a legal and a medical point of view. Concerning the health risks of radiation the Royal College of Radiologists in London in 1996 stated, 12 There have also been documented cases of minors separated from their family by the readmission procedure. In one case, two alleged minor brothers were separated. One was readmitted as an adult and the other stayed in Italy. In another case a minor who managed to reach Italy informed the authorities about his brother who is legally residing in Italy, but was not allowed to contact him. In some other cases of interviewed unaccompanied minors, even though they informed the Italian authorities that their families are residing in other European countries, no measures to locate their families or relatives were initiated. Concerns also arise about health risks resulting form the use of scanners for the detection of irregular migrants hiding in trucks especially in the cases of minors.29 30 that it is “unjustified” to undertake a radiograph examination for age estimation purposes on alleged minor refugees. It is not acceptable to expose children to ionizing radiation for an examination, which has no therapeutic benefit and is purely for administrative purposes. 29 Italy has installed 28 networked X-ray scanners located at its major national ports of which the ones in Ancona, Bari, Brindisi and Venice are all of the type “Silhouette 300”. These scanners are dual-energy x-ray devices up to 450 keV operating in continuous exposure mode - fluoroscopic mode (also known as Silhouette Mobile Scanner). The same types of images are produced with gamma ray scanning technology operating in the same manner. These scanners are deployed to inspect interior of vehicles crossing the border. http://www.donggok.co.kr/data/SilhouetteScan.pdf 30 In France using x-rays to find people is banned in case the radiation damages their health, even though it emits X-ray levels similar to a hospital machine. See: French ban X-ray scans for illegal immigrants as radiation makes them ‘too dangerous’ Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278565/ French-ban-X-ray-scans-illegal-immigrants-radiation-makes-dangerous.html#ixzz1xO9WgJIJ, See also: Health dangers by x-rays http://www.pnas.org/content/83/13/4839.abstract