NERM is supported by UNHCR (expert support), EUAA, IOM and the European Commission Its operation on the ground is carried out through NGOs Arsis, METAdrasi and the Network for Children’s Rights. 1174 The Mechanism also includes a 24/7 telephone hotline for identifying and tracing children in need, which is available in six languages. The hotline provides guidance to children, citizens, local and public authorities on steps and actions to be taken from the point of identification of an unaccompanied child until their timey inclusion in emergency accommodation. 1175 The total number of referrals of unaccompanied children received by the SGVP in 2024 were reported at 6.222, according to the sum of respective monthly statistics, marking an 23% increase compared to the same period in 2023 (5043).1176 At the same time, the number of accommodation positions in spaces, specifically designated for unaccompanied minors remained stable, reaching a total of 1,930 places by the end 2024,1177 as opposed to 2,030 by the end of 2023. 1178 Of these, almost 93% (1,775) were longterm accommodation (including SILs), while the rest (155) were temporary/emergency accommodation under the relevant mechanism established by the MoMA in April 2021. 1179 Based on updates by MoMA, by the year’s end, the majority of referrals were for UAMs from Egypt (48%), Somalia (15%), Syria (14%) and Afghanistan (10%).1180 Of the total UAM that were placed in 2024, 4,037 were boys, in most cases older than 17 (2,554), while 341 were girls, in most cases similarly older than 17 (230). 1181 Nevertheless, challenges remained regarding the proper identification of UAM upon arrival, and consequently, cases where UAM have been accommodated alongside the adult population continued to be observed in 2024, at least on the islands, currently 1182 For the situation of UAMs see also the chapter on Guarantees for Vulnerable Groups. The lack of appropriate care, including accommodation for unaccompanied children, in Greece has been repeatedly raised by human rights bodies. 1183 Moreover, in the recent case of T.K. v. Greece (Application no. 16112/20) of 18 January 2024 represented by Refugee Law Clinic Berlin (Germany) and supported by I Have Rights (Samos), the ECtHR held that there has been a violation of Articles 3 and 8 of the ECHR in the case of an unaccompanied child on Samos, whose wrong registration as an adult and the failure to correct his age violated his right to respect for private and family life (Article 8 ECHR). Moreover, according to the Court, the living conditions of the applicant amounted to inhumane and degrading treatment, in violation of Article 3 of the ECHR.1184 1174 1175 1176 1177 1178 1179 1180 1181 1182 1183 1184 Interreg Europe, National Emergency Response Mechanism (NERM) in Greece, 16 November 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/2ryp53cs; see also, European Crime Prevention Network (EUCPN), National Emergency Response Mechanism¸available at: https://tinyurl.com/mvv8ntvp. See European Commission: Greece: National Emergency Response Mechanism | European Website on Integration,available at: https://tinyurl.com/bd8aa8ys, see also, UNHCR, Greece launches national tracing and protection mechanism for unaccompanied children in precarious conditions, 6 April 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3uBRICI. MoMA / General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection, Situation Update: Unaccompanied Children (UAC) in Greece, op.cit. p. 3. For 2023 data see ibid., p. 1; data for 2022 was made available via a written reply by the SSPUM to GCR request for statistics on 16 February 2023. AIDA, Country Report: Greece, 2021 Update, May 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3MRVkLf, p. 194. Data provided by the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection on 1 January 2025. MoMA / General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection, Situation Update: Unaccompanied Children (UAC) in Greece, January 2025 op. cit., p. 3. Written reply by the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons & Institutional Protection to GCR’s request for statistics on 7 January 2025. GCR & Oxfam, Lesbos Bulletin: Update on Lesbos and the Aegean Islands, by the Greek Council for Refugees & Oxfam, March 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3YEXp0H, p. 5. -Indicatively see: UNHCR, Lone children face insecurity on the Greek islands, 14 October 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/36XQ6pf. In 2019, in the context of his visit to the Lesvos, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees stated he was ‘very worried about children, especially children travelling alone…[who] are the most exposed to violence and exploitation”, while Human Rights Watch inter alia noted that “the lack of prompt transfers [from the islands] put vulnerable people, including people with invisible disabilities and children, at higher risk of abuse and violation of their rights”, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations on the combined fourth to sixth reports of Greece, 28 June 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3xTHfYR, and UN Human Rights Office, Council of Europe, New complaint registered concerning Greece, 21 December 2018, available at: https://bit.ly/2SG0FpF European Committee of Social Rights, Decision on admissibility and on immediate measures in the case International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) v. Greece, Complaint No. 173/2018, 23 May 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/39clrGj., I Have Rights, European Court of Human Rights Condemns Greece’s Treatment of an Unaccompanied Child on Samos, 18 January 2024, available at: https://bit.ly/44dJNNg. 213