Newly released from a detention facility in Mitilini, Lesvos Island, an unaccompanied Afghan child stands on the deck of a ferry sailing to the city of Thessaloniki, northern Greece. © 2009 Moises Saman. “It was raining hard, and the Greek police started beating us to make us move more quickly. I saw one man who tried to refuse to go on the boat, and they beat him and threw him in the river.” A migrant describing his expulsion at the Evros River to Turkey at the hands of Greek officials Greece, on the front line of migration to Europe, has a responsibility to respect migrants’ rights and dignity. That includes adequate protection for those most vulnerable, especially unaccompanied children. Although the new government says it intends to address the problem, its legacy is an asylum system that no longer deserves that name, abusive migration officials and filthy, hazardous detention facilities. Two Human Rights Watch reports document the abuse: In “Stuck in a Revolving Door: Iraqis and Other Asylum Seekers and Migrants at the Greece/Turkey Entrance to the European Union,” migrants reported that Greek police detained them without registering them and then systematically expelled them to Turkey, forcing them onto boats and secretly taking them across the Evros River at night. “Left to Survive: Systematic Failure to Protect Unaccompanied Migrant Children in Greece,” documents how Greek authorities routinely detain unaccompanied children in horrible conditions for prolonged periods. For those finally released, life on the streets becomes a daily struggle to survive and many are at risk of exploitation. HRW 24 www.hrw.org