share more Reuters Reuters Most unaccompanied children failed to win asylum in Greece, NGO says Story by Reuters • 2h ago
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Fewer than a third of unaccompanied children succeeded in winning asylum in Greece last year, with the rest of the applications rejected or in limbo, aid agency Save the Children said in calling for better protection of those most vulnerable.
Greece is one of the main routes into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Hundreds of migrants died off the Greek shores last month when an overcrowded smugglers’ boat capsized and sank.
In a report on Thursday, Save the Children said that 981 out of 3,175 asylum requests logged in Greece last year by unaccompanied children - up to 18 years old - were accepted.
“These figures suggest many lone children on the move were denied the right to protection and left without the legal documentation needed to enable them to remain in the country,” said the non-governmental organisation (NGO).
It blamed bureaucracy for leaving such minors to live in Greece unofficially and without any documentation, a situation making their already fraught fate even more precarious by increasing the risk of violence, abuse and exploitation.
To be fair, if some stranger took a cab to your house and asked to eat your food, would you pay for their cab fare back as well?
Obviously these are extenuating circumstances, and we should show more care towards refugees and especially more vulnerable classes, but to say it is their “job” is overselling their obligation.
They are children. Wtf is this analogy of yours. Yes, if a starving child that was all alone asked to be fed and then when I told them I didn’t have the means to support them (because, you know, I’m not fucking country, but some countries are in fact countries and have the resources of an entire nation) and would need to send them on their way, yes, I would make sure the starving child that was all alone had some proper way to get somewhere safe and not just send them back on the streets. Not really a wild concept.
In that case, you’re going to have to endure children non-stop arriving at your doorstep consequence-free hoping to be the 30% of them you let come in.
Which I mean, good for the kids, but it’s not sustainable.