MISSING CHILDREN

500 children went missing from the Aghia Varvara institution between 1998 and 2002. Only 4 of the children have since been located. Where are the other 496? No-one knows. Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Juan Miguel Petit visited the country in November 2005 and reported specifically on this case and made recommendations to the Greek government. During the visit, I looked for information on the case of the approximately 500 children who went missing from the children’s institution Aghia Varvara between 1998 and 2002. I share the conclusion of the report of the Ombudsman on the case, which indicated the overall deficiencies of the institution Aghia Varvara to adequately respond to the challenging objective of the government programme set up at the time and aimed at giving protection and social care to street children. I saw the records in which children coming and going from Aghia Varvara were registered. All the elements I gathered indicate a deficiency in the design of the educational and social methodology of the programme. During my visit in Albania, the Albanian Ombudsman informed me that only 4 of the missing children from Aghia Varvara have been located in Albania. We do not know where the others are. As a preliminary suggestion, I recommend to consider the possibility of creating a mixed commission of relevant Greek and Albanian authorities, the Ombudsmen of both countries and NGOs which have worked on the case. The commission should coordinate the efforts to locate the children whose whereabouts remain unknown and identify institutional responsibilities. My perspective on this case is on the lessons that we should draw from it to prevent its recurrence in the future. For this, a more efficient and cooperative relationship between the Government and NGOs is needed to make children a recognised priority for the country beyond political, institutional and ideological disputes. He also commented on other issues: There is still need to improve the coverage of social programmes with specialised staff with specific expertise to work with foreign unaccompanied minors, street children, and victims of trafficking.The protection of unaccompanied minors is to be improved. Although the Government is making efforts in this direction, in practice unaccompanied children are too often treated as adult illegal migrants. This is particularly concerning for more vulnerable categories of unaccompanied minors, such as victims of trafficking and asylum seekers, who may end up being deported without having had the possibility to access the protection measures they are entitled to. The situation of Roma and Roma children is a concern. I visited a Roma settlement in which housing conditions and sanitation are just not acceptable. Access to health and education is limited or lacking and social programmes are not providing assistance to the community. The State should take specific measures to improve the living conditions and the possibilities of development of Roma communities to give to Roma children alternatives other than street work or prostitution as survival strategies for them and their families. My last consideration relates to the lack of an overarching institutional set up for child protection. Institutional responsibilities are spread among different ministries without a coordinating entity. Such a coordinating body is very much needed to improve the institutional capacity to respond to the problems I referred to, together with specific measures such as specialised educators and social workers, outreach programmes, community centres, and resourced shelters. The cooperation of NGOs in the implementation of these measures, which are to be framed in an overarching policy on children’s rights and child protection, is an indispensable asset. We can only imagine what has become of all those children. I cannot believe that so many could have been 'lost' and that so little effort had been made to find them. And yes, I'm going to critisise Greece about this too. If it had been 500 Greek children from an orphanage or other such institution, would it have gone unchecked? This story makes me despair for our humanity. Whatever your views of foreigners and immigrants and asylum seekers and roma and whoever else you have problems with: These are children we are talking about. 496 children. 496 children that Greece had the responsibility to protect (regardless of why and how they were here). And Greece failed them. For a country that prides itself on loving children (I assume now that that means Greek children) This is a disgrace. What is going to be done. My guess is absolutely nothing. UPDATE Here are two links to this story. Just to clarify, Aghia Varvara was a state-run institution where children were housed after being picked up by police from the streets. The Amnesty report cites 502 children missing and both articles state that little or no effort has been made to find them (in fact it was not even reported until 2003) Copy of the letter to the Greek government from the World Organisation against Torture (2004) The missing children also appear in the annual report on Greece from Amnesty International 2005

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