I have written several posts about children who are born here to immigrant parents who cannot get birth certificates and become illegal at the age of eighteen. See Life without Papers and If I didn’t Laugh.
To follow-up, I would like to point out a new blog started by Loretta Macauley, a founder member of the [...]

I have posted on the subject of birth certificates for children of immigrants born in Greece several times and the posts prompted some difficult and long discussions that I do not want to revisit. I am not going to link to them but if you are new or interested, you can use the search facility [...]

From the International Herald Tribune

Greece should improve conditions at an island detention center for scores of children who arrived as illegal immigrants this year, an aid group said Friday.
A total 121 children aged 10 to 16 are being held in cramped conditions on the small eastern Aegean Sea island of Leros, the France-based group Medecins [...]

The fact that there are people like this in the world makes me completely sick to my stomach. As you probably know the kid is the same age as the children he molested. This is one of the nightmares that keeps parents awake at night.
From the Associated Press

A Greek court convicted a British man on [...]

A child is dead
The full article is here at Dying to emigrate
[I have corrected the text in two places (there were no spaces between the words). I have not changed the article in any way]

The Greek port town of Patra is a key route for migrants (mainly Afghanis and Iraqis) dreaming of starting a new [...]

Another horrifying example of the failure of the authorities in protecting children from abuse. There had been several complaints about the sexual abuse of three children over the past four years but no-one did anything. Their mother who was using them as sex slaves was finally taken to court in April and denied custody of [...]

From the Athens News

A University of Athens questionnaire, completed by 2,500 schoolchildren across Greece, not only indicates that three in 20 children have been abused by a member of their family or someone within their immediate family circle, but also shows that others are systematically covering up for this abuse.

As shocking as this result is, [...]

I haven’t forgotten the Roma children I met at Votanikos. At the moment I cannot write about developments because of an impending court case. I will update you as soon as I get the word.
In the meantime, here is part of an article from Earth Times.

Carrying a bag full of lighters, key chains [...]

Via the Athens News
An ambitious initiative has been launched by the Health ministry to make sure that every child in Greece is immunised and receives all the necessary boostershots, regardless of their nationality or residence status, by the year 2010.
The president of the Hellenic Centre for Infectious Disease Control, Yiannis Pierroutsakos, who is heading the [...]

It was a while ago since I did this post and upset one person with the fridge picture, but here are some more…

Via Kathimerini
Two more of the five schoolboys accused of killing 11-year-old Alex Meshivili were yesterday given extensions to testify before the Thessaloniki prosecutor investigating the case. The two brothers, aged 12 and 13, will have to testify on March 22 and 23. Two other schoolboys have been given until March 20. The fifth child is [...]

No words today… but these little ones made me smile.

Technorati Tags: children, roma

I apologise for the delay of my post on my recent visit to the Roma community in Votanikos. I haven’t forgotten. I am just being incredibly lazy. For now though, I would just like to say that I hope 2007 will bring some hope and change to all the children I’ve met in the camps [...]

…So a friend of mine pulled me up by the bootstraps and reminded me (again) why I’m doing this. Am I as fickle as the mainstream media when it comes to a story? What happened in some of the cases I have covered here ? Have they just disappeared like so much old news. Well, [...]

There are more than 100,000 child pornography sites on the internet. Join the one and a half million people who have lit candles to help eradicate this shameful and disgusting trade.

Technorati Tags: activism, children, child pornography