islands, and in Greek Coast Guard facilities. Three children who were apprehended in Italy or while attempting to reach Italy said they had been detained in a small room on a ship. Wasim T., a 16-year-old Kurdish boy who said he fled Iraq after ISIS executed his father, said that before he was at the Filiates police station, he was detained for 15 days in the Igoumenitsa Coast Guard facility, 12 days at another police station, and that a couple of months prior, he had also been detained briefly in Thessaloniki. Wasim described his transfer out of the Coast Guard facility: “Then they took us to another prison. I thought they were taking us to a camp but they took us to another prison…. I don’t count the days anymore.”25 The unjustified detention of unaccompanied children, including the detention of children for longer than is permitted by Greek law, amounts to arbitrary detention and a violation of the right to liberty. Under international law, binding European directives, and national law, detention of unaccompanied children can be used only as a measure of last resort, in exceptional circumstance and for the shortest appropriate period.26 The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which oversees states’ compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, has concluded that “[d]etention cannot be justified solely on the basis of the child being unaccompanied or separated, or on their migratory or residence status, or lack thereof,” and urges states to “expeditiously and completely cease the detention of children on the basis of their immigration status.”27 The EU Action Plan on Unaccompanied Minors echoes these principles.28 25 Human Rights Watch interview with Wasim T., Filiates Police Station, Filiates, July 1, 2016. 26 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted November 20, 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, annex, 44 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 167, U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989), entered into force September 2, 1990, ratified by Greece on May 11, 1993, art. 37(b); European Council Directive 2013/33/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 laying down standards for the reception of applicants for international protection (recast), adopted June 26, 2013, art. 11(3) (Recast Reception Conditions Directive); Law on Reception, art. 46(10)(b). 27 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, “Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children Outside their Country of Origin,” General Comment No. 6, UN Doc. CRC/GC/2005/6 (2005), para. 61; UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Report of the 2012 Day of General Discussion on the Rights of All Children in the Context of International Migration, February 2013, http://tinyurl.com/OHCHR-CRC-2012 (accessed August 16, 2016), para. 78. 28 European Commission, Action Plan on Unaccompanied Minors (2010-2014), COM (2010) 2313/3, http://eur- lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:0213:FIN:en:PDF (accessed July 30, 2016), p. 9. “WHY ARE YOU KEEPING ME HERE?” 14