There are no official procedures for assessing children’s ages. Police officers who register children’s identities sometimes record their ages as older than that given by the children. At other times they do not question children who claim to be adults. Police do not register children as unaccompanied and they fail to identify and refer children who have been traumatized or trafficked to specialized services. While police in border areas do generally inform prosecutors—the child’s temporary guardian—that a child migrant has been detained, prosecutors subsequently fail to safeguard the child’s interests or keep track of a child as he or she moves through different parts of the immigration system. Assessing Age The authorities have not defined any official procedures for age determination. A presidential decree adopted in mid-July 2008 provides for the possibility of a medical exam to determine a person’s age. It remains silent, however, on the type of medical or other examination and provides no instruction on how to take into account the margin of error medical examinations are prone to.34 The decree requires that a person who claims to be a child be treated as such until the completion of the medical examination.35 Medical examinations used to determine the age of presumed children are subject to margins of error of up to five years.36 Pediatricians have further criticized the fact that some exams expose children to X-ray for non-medical purposes.37 The Committee on the Rights of the Child and UNHCR have both asked states not to base age assessments solely on the physical appearance of a child, but to also consider his or her psychological maturity, to take into account the margin of error that medical exams are subject to, and to give the child the benefit of doubt.38 34 Presidential Decree 90/2008, “Adjusting Greek legislation to the provisions of the Directive 2005/85/EC on minimum standards on procedures in Member States for granting and withdrawing refugee status,” Official Gazette A 138, art. 12. 35 Presidential Decree 90/2008, art. 12 (4) (d). 36 “Age determination is an inexact science and the margin of error can sometimes be as much as 5 years either side.” Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, The Health of Refugee Children: Guidelines for Practitioners (London: 1999), p.13 37 Ibid, pp.13-14. 38 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), “Guidelines on Policies and Procedures in Dealing with Unaccompanied Children Seeking Asylum” (hereafter UNHCR Guidelines), February 1997, http://www.unhcr.org/cgi- Left to Survive 20