On Thursday, 19 June 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued two new judgements which condemned Greece for repeated violations of the rights of 39 unaccompanied children.  

With these two new Decisions (M.Y. and others v. Greece, application no. 51980/19 and 5 other cases, and A.I. and others v. Greece, application no. 11588/20 and two other cases), the Court jointly examined 6 and 3 applications respectively, which had been submitted concerning the cases of a total of 39 minors, condemning Greece for violations of Articles 3 and 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The cases were brought before the Court by the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR), Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) and Equal Rights Beyond Borders, and in the case of M.Y. and Others v. Greece (no. 51980/19) by lawyers Dimitra Linardaki, Eleni Spathana and Nikolaia Triantafyllou.

The first judgment concerns the Greek state’s failure to provide adequate reception conditions, including its failure to appoint a guardian for 36 unaccompanied children, who at different times between 2019 and 2020 were kept in the prolonged detention and/or placed in ‘protective custody’ in police stations, the Pre-Removal Detention Center (PRDC) of Amygdaleza and the Reception and Identification Center (RIC) of Malakasa.

In particular, with regard to the children’s detention and/or their placement in ‘protective custody’, the Court found that all 36 minors were held in conditions that amounted to inhuman and/or degrading treatment in violation of Article 3 ECHR. The children were kept at police stations, at the Amygdaleza PRDC and at the (then) newly established Malakasa RIC. The Court further found that the measure itself (detention/’protective custody’) was in breach of the guarantees of the Convention and that the minors did not have an effective remedy to challenge their detention.

Furthermore, the Court found a violation of Article 3 ECHR due to the state’s failure to provide reception conditions appropriate to their age to unaccompanied children who, prior to their detention/’protective custody’, had remained homeless or were living in inappropriate conditions, without a guardian, in the so-called safe zone of the Samos RIC, the informal camp surrounding Moria RIC, and in other places, such as on a troop carrier in the port of Mytilene. The Court also highlighted, on a case-by-case basis, the delays in the children’s registration and/or their incorrect registration through no fault of their own and the lack of access to asylum, noting that “the applicants remained in a precarious situation for a long period of time, left to fend for themselves in a foreign country and to seek assistance from strangers, NGOs and, ultimately, the Court, despite their young age and the particular situation of insecurity and vulnerability in which, as the Court has found, asylum seekers in Greece are known to live.” (par. 15). It should be recalled that, in its judgment of January 2024 (O.R. v. Greece, No. 24650/19), the Court had again condemned Greece for inhuman and degrading treatment of an unaccompanied child who had been left to survive alone in an environment totally unsuitable for minors – homeless for almost six months – and in unacceptable precarious conditions, given his status as an asylum seeker and unaccompanied minor.

In its second judgment of 19 June 2025 (A.I. and Others v. Greece, no. 11588/20 and two other cases), the Court similarly found violations in respect of three more unaccompanied children due to the Greek authorities’ failure to provide them with reception conditions and/or due to placing them in ‘protective custody’ for the same period.

The so-called “protective custody” of unaccompanied children was abolished in December 2020 (Law 4760/2020, Article 43), following systematic interventions by civil society organisations and as a result of a series of cases brought before the ECtHR, including the above-mentioned cases, in most of which the Court had additionally granted interim measures for the protection of minors.

However, the two recent judgments of the Court, as well as its judgments in the landmark cases of Rahimi v. Greece and M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece, to which the Court refers consistently and on which it bases subsequent judgments, remain particularly relevant and serve as a reminder of the Greek authorities’ obligations vis-a-vis unaccompanied children.

This is particularly evident today, amidst a return to a situation where unaccompanied children face informal and de facto restriction of their freedom in the Closed Controlled Access Centers (CCACs) on the islands and in Reception and Identification Centres (RICs) in the mainland, once again in totally inappropriate conditions and with significant delays in appointing guardians and granting them access to asylum.

As of June 2025 and according to the official data, 430 unaccompanied children remain in CCACs and RICs, while in May the ECtHR granted interim measures to 45 unaccompanied children residing in the Samos CCAC and 13 children residing in the CCAC of Leros. As the Greek Ombudsman has flagged, “[t]he image, especially of the RIC and C.C.A.C., is more akin to a detention centre than a reception and accommodation facility for newly arrived foreigners,” while the European Ombudsman has expressed reservations about "whether respect for human dignity, the protection of the best interests of the child and the protection of the vulnerable can be ensured when beneficiaries are forced to live in such an environment."

These new decisions by the ECtHR serve as an attribution of justice for all unaccompanied children who have suffered degrading treatment and were left unprotected by the Greek authorities. They are also a reminder that the Greek authorities must always and as a matter of priority take into account the minority of unaccompanied refugee children, who, regardless of the number of newly arrived refugees or the lack of infrastructure, are a particularly vulnerable group of people. Finally, it is a reminder that the obligation to protect from treatment contrary to Article 3 of the Convention (prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment) is absolute.

The organisations:

Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)

Refugee Support Aegean (RSA)

Equal Rights Beyond Borders