Greece is facing an emergency situation as the number of unaccompanied refugee minors flowing into Greece is surging.
Speaking to British media outlet The Guardian, the head of NGO The Home Project, Sofia Kouvelaki dubbed the situation “an unprecedented emergency the likes of which the country has not been for years” as it is estimated that in 2023 the number of unaccompanied minors with no adult protection amounted to 1,490.
Meanwhile, the NGO director warned that Greek authorities lacked the proper facilities to host minors.
In 2024, a large portion of unaccompanied refugee minors were trafficked into Greece via a new smuggling route from the coast of Libya to Crete, prompting many NGOs to urge Greek authorities to take urgent actions to ensure their safe transport to special hosting facilities or third countries.
Ten years after Greece found itself at the center of the refugee crisis, when nearly a million asylum seekers bound for the EU crossed its borders, the number of children arriving in the country more than doubled year-on-year in 2024, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
In November alone, 13,000 minors arrived in Greece via sea routes. Landings of unaccompanied and separated children also surged sharply, rising from 1,490 in 2023 to around 3,000 so far this year.
“There is an enormous number of children arriving daily on the boats, and there is an urgent need to create more safe spaces to host them,” said Kouvelaki.
Recent arrivals referred to the Home Project included extremely young children from Syria and Egypt, she added.
Greece’s Minister of Migration, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, predicted last week that pressure along migration routes in the Eastern Mediterranean toward Europe’s southernmost border state is likely to persist into 2025.
“The widespread geopolitical turmoil in our wider region, where three wars are currently taking place — the most recent in Syria — combined with the climate crisis, is forcing many to leave their homes simply to survive,” he told parliament.
“All these factors have led to a significant increase in migratory and refugee flows since late 2023.”
By the end of the year, 60,000 people are expected to have entered Greece. The rise in numbers has been so substantial that camps on the Aegean islands are operating at full capacity, Panagiotopoulos said.
