Minors arrived on Kos and Rhodes respectively without being accompanied by any family member or relatives and were placed in the so-called “safe zone” of Kos CCAC, pending the assignment of a guardian in accordance with the best interests of the child and their transfer’s arrangement to proper shelters for minors in the mainland. None of the minors had the right to exit the “safe zone”.

Due to excessive delays in the issuance of guardianship decisions for the unaccompanied and separated minors in the “safe zone” of the Kos CCAC (currently numbering approximately 87), and other systemic problems, the minors had been detained for almost five and six months respectively, when they both contacted Equal Rights Beyond Borders (Equal Rights), asking for their detention to be lifted.

Equal Rights swiftly submitted objections on each one’s behalf before the Rhodes Administrative Court of First Instance, challenging the above de facto detention. Two days later, the Court accepted the objections for both minors, ruling that the restriction of the minor’s freedom of movement within the area of the Kos CCAC amounted to unlawful detention and ordered each one’s and without delay transfer to a suitable Long-Term Accommodation Facility or an Emergency Accommodation Facility for Unaccompanied Minors, that will be designated by the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Citizens and Institutional Protection of the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum, and that a guardian be duly appointed immediately, in accordance with the Law.

While human rights laws provide special guarantees for detention, States consistently attempt to circumvent them. It is highly important that the Rhodes Administrative Court brought these special guarantees to the fore, making thus clear that circumventing them is unlawful and will not be tolerated. Such findings should urge Greece and other EU Member States to finally adhere to basic human rights laws.

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Further information on detention practices in the Dodecanese can be found in Equal Rights’ reports.

Further information on how the recast of the Common European Asylum System will affect children can be found here.

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Contact: press@equal-rights.org