- 55 123. The legal basis has remained largely unchanged.85 It is recalled that unaccompanied children may be deprived of their liberty for the purpose of reception and identification for 25 days, which can be extended up to a total period of 45 days.86 However, it seems that in practice unaccompanied children are frequently held in “protective custody” for prolonged periods based on the general provisions relating to the detention of irregular migrants in the context of administrative expulsion, which can last for up to six months and can be prolonged for up to a total period of 18 months.87 The CPT wishes to receive the Greek authorities’ comments on this matter. 124. At the time of the visit, 128 children were held at Fylakio RIC, of whom 58 were unaccompanied children. While families were accommodated in all four wings (Wing A-D), the centre had a dedicated section for unaccompanied children (Wing A), where most of them were placed. However, given their high number, unaccompanied children were also placed in the other wings together with families and unrelated men, based on nationality considerations. The CPT has repeatedly criticised in the past that holding unaccompanied children together with unrelated adult men was unacceptable and exposed them to an increased risk of exploitation and abuse. 125. It is of concern that unaccompanied children were those who were detained the longest at the RIC, due to the lack of available places in dedicated shelter facilities. Twenty-one unaccompanied children who were mostly from Pakistan or Bangladesh, had been held at the centre for longer than the 25-day-time limit to complete the reception and identification procedure and nine of them had even been held for more than 45 days and were thus detained under “protective custody” pending their transfer to a shelter. The delegation met four unaccompanied children who had been held at the centre for almost five months, one who had been there for almost six months and another one who had been detained at the RIC for almost 10 months. In the CPT’s view, holding unaccompanied children under “protective custody” for such long periods is unacceptable. Although the material conditions at the centre were acceptable, the only organised activity consisted of Greek language courses that were provided to all detained persons. The three persons from a network of guardians present at the centre could only provide limited support to every unaccompanied child, due to the high number of new cases. Further, no psycho-social support was available at the centre. 126. At Amygdaleza Pre-removal Centre, 22 unaccompanied children were being held in a separate wing for periods ranging from 4 to 20 days. Material conditions were acceptable and the accommodation units were clean. However, several children had not been provided with shoes and had to walk barefoot on the gravel yard, despite the large stock of footwear available at the centre. There was also a total lack of purposeful activities at the centre. Further, there were no specialised staff and the children were not provided with any psycho-social support. 85 86 87 See the report on the CPT’s 2016 visits (CPT/Inf (2017) 25), paragraph 31. Recent legislation (Law 4540/2018) amended Section 46 (10) of Law 4375/2016, which now provides that children are not detained, except where absolutely necessary, always in line with their best interests and where it is proven that less coercive alternative measures cannot be applied. See Section 46 (10) of Law 4375/2016. See Section 76 (3) of Law 3386/2005.