Unaccompanied children Family reunification requests of unaccompanied minors with family members or/ and relatives present in another EU country have been affected by the delay in the implementation of the guardianship system in Greece. According to the legal framework, the Public Prosecutor is the temporary guardian of all the unaccompanied minors residing in the Greek territory.340 The Special Secretariat for the Protection of the Unaccompanied Minors (SSPUAM) of the Ministry of Migration & Asylum, in collaboration with the National Centre for Social Solidarity (NCSS -ΕΚΚΑ), bears the responsibility to proceed to any necessary action aiming to the appointment of guardian to unaccompanied children according to art. 4 IPA as amended by the Law 4686/2020. Although the Supervisory Board for the Guardianship of Unaccompanied Minors was to be established and be entered into force by March of 2020, the procedure has still not been completed. Temporary guardians had been appointed at the end of 2020 only for cases of unaccompanied minors who were eligible for the relocation scheme. Those guardians were authorised only to proceed with the necessary arrangements of the BIA and the security interviews. Their role was expanded in 2021, allowing them to follow up with the minors’ applications of international protection and have a better overview of their wellbeing. However, the above network of guardians run by the NGO METAdrasi stopped operating on 23 August 2021. In January 2022, the National Strategy for the Protection of unaccompanied minors was published. As provided in the Strategy, a reform of the guardianship system for unaccompanied minors was deemed necessary. On 22/7/2022 the new Law 4960/2022 on Guardianship and accommodation framework for unaccompanied children was adopted. The new law includes the necessary provisions for the implementation of the new guardianship scheme, which will provide the flexibility to various actors that fulfil specific criteria to provide guardianship services. However, the law has not yet been implemented. The Best Interest Assessment tool, which was drafted and launched by the Greek Dublin Unit based on previous correspondence with other EU countries, UNHCR, UNICEF and EASO was enhanced after the provision of inputs by international and local organisations and NGOs. This tool is an indispensable element of take-charge requests of unaccompanied minors. This tool is aiming to facilitate the family reunification requests under the Dublin Regulation (EU) 604/2013 by gathering all necessary information required by Member-States when assessing family reunification cases of UAM’s. In cases where the assessment cannot be included in the outgoing request, it is forwarded afterwards as a supplementary document. However, the submission of the best interest assessment does not necessarily lead to the acceptance of a take charge request, since other elements are also taken into consideration by the requested Member States, although no such requirement is provided in Article 8 of the Regulation EU 604/2013. These elements are considered evidence of the relative’s ability to support the minor applicant. GCR is aware of cases in which house contracts, photos of the place where the minor will be accommodated in the relative’s house and proof of income have been requested to prove the family member’s or/ and relative’s ability to take care of the applicant. According to NGOs Italy requests house contract and tax declaration. Other countries appoint social workers to contact the sponsor and the child with the aim to assess whether it would be in the child’s best interest to be reunited with the family member/ relative. According to NGOs, France always conducts interviews with the relatives residing in the country while in another case, Italian authority exceptionally called for an interview with family members of the minor due to insufficient information available in the file. Another factor that is being considered while assessing the best interest of the minor, is the existence of a family member/ relative in the requesting Member State. Although the mere existence of a relative does not change the legal status of the minors as unaccompanied, some Member States misinterpret the ‘best 340 Law 4554/2018, Chapter C 75