ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

It is estimated that around 5,250 unaccompanied minors are currently (May 2020) stuck in Greek refugee camps, with the actual number of children in refugee camps in the country being considerably higher in total. On 15 April 2020, 12 children, all unaccompanied minors, were relocated from the Greek islands to Luxembourg. The following day, another 47 unaccompanied minors were relocated from Greece to Germany. These children were the first to be relocated under an initiative taken by the European Union (EU) to move around 1,600 unaccompanied children from the refugee camps in Greece to other EU Member States, in which, at the time of writing, ten Member States have agreed to participate. The initiative is a response to the pleas of the Greek government in September 2019 for additional support and solidarity in managing the difficult situation in Greece for refugees and migrants, including unaccompanied children.

In July 2019, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants issued an end-of-visit statement following his visit to Hungary. The aim of the visit was to assess Hungarian laws, policies and practices concerning migration governance and the impact on migrants’ human rights. The Special Rapporteur noted with concern that migration governance in Hungary is dominated by a security-oriented approach and that little consideration is made for the human rights of migrants, including children. In the report, the Special Rapporteur described how asylum seekers and migrants, irrespective of age, are confined in particular transit zones for the duration of their asylum procedure, a practice referred to as qualifying as detention in nature.