GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR (GHM)
MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP – GREECE (MRG-G)
Address: P.O. Box 60820, GR-15304 Glyka Nera
Telephone: (+30) 2103472259 Fax: (+30) 2106018760
E-mail: office@greekhelsinki.gr Web page: http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr

OSCE HUMAN DIMENSION IMPLEMENTATION MEETING
WARSAW – SEPTEMBER 2005

Contribution on the point in the agenda:
“Humanitarian issues and other commitments: Children victims of trafficking”
27 September 2005

Being both Roma and undocumented migrant from Albania makes one very vulnerable in Greece. If in addition, they are trafficked street children, they are the country’s most vulnerable residents. How their rights are protected is indicative of how the state of law effectively functions or malfunctions in Greece. It is to the incredible story of 500 such children who went missing while at the hands of the state that we would like to draw your attention. To combat the problem of trafficked street children, between 1998-2002 Hellenic Police arrested 661 mostly Albanian children and assigned them to what ministers had announced as the model shelter “Aghia Varvara” in Athens. Then, in early 2003, a “Terre de Hommes” report documented that hundreds of them had simply gone missing.

Greek authorities at all levels did not react to the potential loss of hundreds of lives of children at the hands of the state. It took a formal request by the Albanian Ombudsman to the Greek Ombudsman, for the latter to investigate the case. Yet, when in March 2004 the Ombudsman’s report was completed, it was noticed that he had only investigated why Aghia Varvara was not functioning properly. Even though there was probable criminal responsibility for the 502 registered children gone missing and violations of an array of children’s rights, he did not send the report to the Prosecutor’s Office, as in other cases of probable criminal responsibility.

Since the Prosecutor’s Office did not take any action, even after tens of major media stories, GHM filed a criminal complaint against Aghia Varvara staff and competent police officers, in May 2004. After a preliminary investigation, on 1 December 2004, the prosecutor pressed felony charges “against anyone involved” for the “abduction of children less than 14 years of age.” An investigative judge was assigned to carry out the main investigation which has yet to be completed. Several months later, GHM was informed that the Albanian Ombudsman asked for and received from his Greek counterpart, in April 2005, the list of missing children and launched an effort to locate them or their families. The Albanian Ombudsman promised then GHM they will advise children’s relatives to authorize GHM to represent them in the investigation in Greece, but there has been no progress since.

In the meantime, UN bodies took this matter seriously. The UN Committee Against Torture (CAT), in its 11 November 2004 concluding observations on Greece, expressed its concerns at (http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CAT.C.CR.33.2.En?OpenDocument):

“l) the inadequate measures taken to offer protection to children picked-up by the Security Police and taken into State care during the period 1998 – 2003. In particular, with regard to the approximately six-hundred children taken to the Aghia Varvara children’s institution, five hundred of which went missing, according to reports, and the lack of a prompt investigation into the cases by a judicial authority;”

and recommended to Greece to

“m) review modalities of offering protection to street-children, in particular ensure that those measures protect their rights. All decisions affecting children should be, to the extent possible, taken giving due consideration to their views and concerns in finding an optimal, workable, solution. With respect to the specific case of the Aghia Varvara children’s institution, the Committee urges the State party to take measures to prevent the recurrence of such events. It should also ensure that a judicial investigation is carried out and provide the Committee with information on its outcome… within one year.”

In March 2005, UN Commission on Human Rights was informed that the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, jointly with the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, had sent (http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?Open&DS=E/CN.4/2005/78/Add.3&Lang=E), in December 2004, an urgent appeal to the Greek government on this case. As there was no answer from the authorities, the Special Rapporteurs expressed to the Commission their “concern for the children who are still missing and exposed to a high risk of being exploited, trafficked or re-trafficked” and “reiterated their interest in receiving the reply of the Government to these allegations.”

The UN Human Rights Committee also included a reference in its Concluding Observations on Greece (http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CCPR.CO.83.GRC.En?OpenDocument):

“The Committee urges the State party to protect unaccompanied alien children, and to avoid unsupervised release of such children into the general population. The absence of child welfare protection increases the danger of trafficking and exposes the children to other risks. The State party should conduct a judicial investigation concerning the approximately 500 children who went missing from the Aghia Varvara institution between 1998 and 2002, and provide the Committee within one year with information on the outcome.”

We call on the OSCE Special Representative on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and the OSCE/ODIHR Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues to take up the issue with the Greek authorities and pursue it until a proper judicial investigation is carried out and appropriate sanctions are taken.

______________

Warsaw, 27 September 2005
OSCE HDIM - WORKING SESSION 12
HUMANITARIAN ISSUES AND OTHER COMMITMENTS (part 2)-
Trafficking in Human Beings

STATEMENT BY THE GREEK DELEGATION
IN RIGHT OF REPLY

1. I would like to make an answering statement to a statement earlier made by an NGO,concerning the incident of the 502 missing children from Albania, from the Institution of Children in Saint Barbara:

Preliminary investigations are being conducted and the issue lies in the hands of the Law. In the past, the Greek Ombudsman had taken action that ended in a detailed Report on the issue.

The fact is that the Albanian and Greek Authorities, with the active participation of Greek NGOs, are in continuous cooperation with the aim to clarify the case. The names of all the children are known and have been provided to the Albanian Authorities. Some children had been registered twice and most of them have been located in Albania. I would like to emphatically state that in this case no children have gone missing in Greece.

I take this opportunity once more to emphasize the very important initiative taken by the Albanian and the Greek Authorities concerning an agreement for humanitarian
repatriation of unaccompanied minors, (“Agreement for the protection and assistance of children victims of trafficking”). This agreement establishes hand-in-hand cooperation between Albanian and Greek Authorities and the active participation of “USAID”, “UNICEF”, “Terre des Hommes” and the Greek NGO “ARSIS”.

HDIM.DEL/290/05
27 September 2005

Yes people should send letters to the authorities (for example the ones below) demanding a prompt and independent investigation to locate them and punish those responsible for the disapperances in the framework of the UN Rapporteur’s suggestion above (mixed commission) and in fulfilemnt of the two specific recomemndations by UN CAT and UN HRC. Letters could kindly be copied to GHM at office@greekhelsinki.gr as well as any answers received. Alternatively deviousdiva may draft a kind letter mainly along the lines of the Rapporteur and the two UN bodies with links to relevant info web pages, which will then be posted in various sites for signatures and then sending it to the authorities and publishing it.

- Mr. Costas Karamanlis, Prime Minister, Prime Minister’s Office at the Hellenic Parliament, Greek Parliament Blgd, Constitution Square, Athens, Greece, Fax: +30 210 3238129 Email: Mail@primeminister.gr

- Ms. Dora Bakoyannis, Foreign Minister, Athens, Greece, Fax: 30 210 36 81 433

- Mr. Anastasios Papaligouras, Minister of Justice, Athens, Greece, Fax +30 2107489231

Welcome to my blog natasha pantazi and thank you for the update on Dream. I hadn’t realised it was over. I am going to update my links very soon to include the ngo’s who are working here on these issues. Thanks for the reminder.

Only thanks to the subsequent (1 December 2005) filing by GHM of a civil claimants’ petition on behalf of two of the victims located in Albania, was the file reactivated and the prosecutor has to assign a judge to carry out an additional criminal investigation. Our request to access the file is pending as it has to go to the judge first and we have not been informed of any such move as yet.

The bilateral agreement is IRRELEVANT to this issue that I ma sorry to say ONLY GHM cares about and wants to see the investigation continued, supported luckily by specific UN requests to Greece.

13 November 2005

Topic: UN Special Rapporteur: Roma living conditions in Greece unacceptable – Only 4 of 500 Albanian missing street children located!

Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) welcomes the preliminary conclusions of the UN Special Rapporteur on sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography’s visit in Greece. They include a reference to unacceptable conditions in one Roma settlement (in (Votanikos, Athens –where GHM took him); and the confirmation that only four of the five hundred missing Albanian (mostly Roma and Egyptian) street children that went missing in Greece between 1998-2002, after been taken by authorities to the Aghia Varvara children’s institution have been located in Albania. GHM, which has brought this terrible issue to the attention of Greek court authorities and intergovernmental institutions, considers the Rapporteur’s recommendation to create a special Greek-Albanian commission to investigate these disappearances very important and is ready to participate to it. GHM deplores that during today’s press conference of the UN Rapporteur, the Greek Ombudsman felt it necessary to take the floor to challenge the accuracy of the number of children concerned and state that although only four children were found, this does not mean that the other are missing: after all it was the Ombudsman who first established in early 2004 that 500 children were missing on the basis of a list that his office drew up, so it appeared today that the Ombudsman was in effect challenging his own credibility… The Rapporteur is correct that in Greece there need to be established a –currently non-existent- cooperation between state authorities and NGOs on children issues; for it to be at all efficient it should include all actors involved and not just the ones the state finds agreeable; all those involved need show goodwill from the beginning rather than the prevailing mistrust or the defensive tendencies to deny the existence of problems that even state authorities have previously admitted to. GHM appends the UN Rapporteur’s texts on Greece and Albania distributed today.

NATIONS UNIES
HAUT HAUT COMMISSARIAT AUX DROITS DE L’HOMME

UNITED NATIONS
HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Briefing note of the 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

Visit to Greece, 8 – 14 November 2005

In my capacity as Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, I carried out an official visit in Greece from 8 to 14 November 2005. During the visit, I had some 25 meetings and interacted with over 100 persons.

I thank the Government and in particular the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for having extended to me the invitation to visit the country and for facilitating all meetings with public authorities.

During the visit, I had the honour to meet the Minister of Justice, and high level representatives of the Ministry of Public Order, the Ministry of National Education and Religions, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Employment and Social Protection, and the Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity. I met representatives of the Parliament, judges, prosecutors and the police. I had meetings with international organizations, NGOs, community centres, children’s institutions and a detention centre for unaccompanied minors awaiting deportation. I had the opportunity to speak with children in all these institutions.

This visit comes after a mission to Albania, undertaken from 31 October to 7 November. The purpose of visiting two neighbouring countries was to better understand trans-national dynamics of phenomena like child trafficking and migration flows of unaccompanied children.

After having been a country of origin of migration, in the last decade Greece has increasingly become a country of transit and destination of migrants. The huge and dispersed coastline makes Greece an attractive destination or a gateway to the European Union. This big flow of people on the move brought along challenges that the country was not prepared to face. I refer in particular to the situation of children, which is the one pertaining to my mandate. Unaccompanied minors can be easily exposed to the risk of exploitation and trafficking if they are not adequately protected.

Several achievements can be registered: relevant international instruments were ratified, some other are in the process of being ratified; new laws have been adopted on trafficking of human beings and on migration ; an institutional framework to implement the law against trafficking was set up through the establishment of the Inter-Ministerial Task Force for Combating Human Trafficking and the adoption of an integrated programme.

Nevertheless, even though the number of registered cases of child trafficking or child sexual exploitation that was reported to me may be relatively small, the institutional capacity to respond needs to be further improved.

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. This was recognised by all actors I inter-acted with.

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.

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.

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. An advisory board of civil society and public authorities to advice on the design of policies and on priority areas can be instrumental to give an institutional framework to the participation of civil society.

ON the 496 children , seems there is a development,

a bilateral agreement is to be signed by greece and albania
on several problems , one will be the wereabouts of children
picked up by police and returned to albania before the
olympics of 2004, seems there will be announcement today or tomorrow.

== z ==

I’ve been meaning to get in touch with you but I can’t find your email address. Could you please drop me an email?