July, 19 2016, 03:15pm EDT
Greece: Migrant Children in Police Cells
Dreadful Conditions; Transfer Them to Open Facilities
ATHENS
Greek authorities regularly detain asylum-seeking and other migrant children traveling on their own in small, crowded, and unsanitary police station cells, Human Rights Watch said today. They are held there for weeks and months, waiting for space in shelter facilities.
Greece should immediately end this practice and find space for unaccompanied children in open facilities with decent living conditions where they can receive care, counseling, legal aid, and other basic services.
"Police cells are no place for children who have fled their countries, endured perilous journeys, and are all alone in Greece," said Rebecca Riddell, Europe fellow at Human Rights Watch. "Locking vulnerable children in cramped and dirty cells for weeks or months is never an acceptable alternative for kids who need and deserve care and protection."
Although detaining children in police stations was originally intended as a short-term protection measure, a lack of shelters and other alternatives has led to arbitrary prolonged detention in places unfit for children, Human Rights Watch said. According to National Center for Social Solidarity (EKKA), as of July 18 an estimated 18 children were locked in police stations awaiting transfer, while hundreds of other unaccompanied children were held in large detention centers, including on the Greek islands, where they were not free to leave.
On visits to two police stations between June 26 and July 1, 2016, Human Rights Watch spoke with 11 children, some as young as 14, who had been detained for up to two months. Human Rights Watch was not allowed to look at the cells.
The children described unsanitary, overcrowded cells, including dirty blankets and bugs, and lack of access to information or services such as counseling and legal aid. At a police station in northeast Greece, children said a broken shower drain was causing water to flood their cell and that they used their clothes to block the water. The station commander said that as many as 23 children had recently been in a cell with a capacity of 10.
"Babrak K.," a 16-year-old boy from Afghanistan, said that before being transferred to the station in northwest Greece where Human Rights Watch spoke to him, he spent five days in a nearby police station in a windowless, vermin-infested basement cell. He said that four people shared three mattresses on the floor, and that the toilet had no door. He said that food was thrown into the cell through a small slot in the door and that because detainees were not provided with cups, he drank water from a discarded food container.
At both police stations, children said they were not allowed to leave their small cells. Some said their meeting with Human Rights Watch was the first time in weeks that they had left their cells.
Records at one police station showed that the eight children held there had been in police custody for an average of one month. "Javed S." a 16-year-old boy from Afghanistan who had been in police custody for 52 days, said: "The situation is very bad...I feel alone here, far from my family, from my friends...I need to get out of this hell."
Senior police officers interviewed acknowledged that the arrangement was undesirable. The head of the Aliens Police Division in Thessaloniki, Brigadier Pantelakis Georgios, said, "This is not what we want. These children are not detainees." The Thesprotia police director, Ntontis Ilias, said, "Apart from being police officers, we are also parents.... Of course we agree children should not be handled by us, but for now it's the best available option."
Human Rights Watch saw children who appeared to be experiencing psychological distress and spoke with two who had attempted to harm themselves. One had used a razor to make small cuts on his arm and another had stopped eating and contemplated suicide. A psychologist at a shelter for unaccompanied children, Fivos Kolovos, stressed that the lack of access to support in detention can be particularly harmful: "Being in detention and having psychological issues is the worst combination. No one can take care of you, not even your friends who are in the cell with you." There was no routine access to psychological care at the police stations visited.
Many of the children interviewed said they had not received information about their rights or about the process for seeking asylum. None had an opportunity to speak with the police with the help of an interpreter. "Houmam B.," a 17-year-old who said he was from Syria and had been in police custody for 10 days, said he had not been able to communicate with the police at all: "I've never spoken to an interpreter, I ask for help from my friends."
Children said they had fled violence, child recruitment, or crushing poverty. Babrak K. said he stopped going to school in Afghanistan when the Taliban executed two of his classmates: "It happened in an instant. The Taliban came and cut off the heads of two boys." He said he finally left Afghanistan after the Taliban sent a written threat to his family.
The detention of unaccompanied children due to a shortage of sufficient and adequate accommodation is a chronic problem in Greece. According to the National Center for Social Solidarity (EKKA), the government authority responsible for managing the placement of unaccompanied children in shelters, Greece has only 661 shelter spaces for unaccompanied children. As of July 18, all facilities were full, and 1,394 requests for placement were pending. EKKA received more than twice the number of requests for transfers of unaccompanied children to shelters in the first quarter of 2016 than in the first quarter of 2015. According to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, more than 60,300 children have reached Greece by sea since the beginning of 2016, 38 percent of total sea arrivals. There are no reliable statistics on how many of these children are unaccompanied.
Applicable Greek law, as amended in April, says that detention of children should be avoided and that unaccompanied children should not be detained as a rule, but only in very exceptional cases as a last resort. However, the law still foresees the possibility of detaining unaccompanied children for up to 25 days pending referral to a dedicated reception facility, and an extension of 20 days if the child cannot be transferred due to exceptional circumstances, such as the arrival of a large number of unaccompanied children. According to police records at a station Human Rights Watch visited at the end of June, five children had been in police custody in excess of 25 days and two had been in custody more than 45 days.
The law also calls for all children in detention to be "given the possibility to occupy themselves with activities, including games and recreational activities appropriate for their age." But Human Rights Watch found no evidence that the children in police cells had any such opportunities. While this law improves upon the previous framework, which provided no clear time limit, it falls short of providing adequate protection to prevent prolonged detention of children, or securing appropriate conditions in the child's best interest, if detention occurs.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Greece is a party, says that children can only be detained as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which oversees states' compliance with the convention, has concluded that "[d]etention cannot be justified solely on the basis of the child being unaccompanied or separated, or on their migratory or residence status, or lack thereof." International standards and the 2010 EU Action Plan on Unaccompanied Minors specify that, in the exceptional cases when unaccompanied children are detained, their best interests must be taken into account. Children in detention have a right to recreation and to education, and should have access to basic necessities, appropriate medical and psychological care, and legal assistance.
Greek authorities should avoid detaining unaccompanied children and should adapt Greek law and practice to ensure that children are detained only in exceptional circumstances and for the shortest appropriate period, Human Rights Watch said. Even before any change in law or the establishment of sufficient dedicated shelters, authorities should not detain children in police cells when facilities with better conditions are available. Authorities should transfer children to transitional facilities, including designated safe spaces in refugee camps and other open facilities.
The Greek government should make it a priority to establish open, dedicated shelters with sufficient capacity, where unaccompanied children can get the care and support they need and to which they are entitled under national and international law. The European Union should provide the necessary resources to support such facilities.
"Children who have fled violence and poverty and encountered danger along the way shouldn't face prolonged detention and neglect when they arrive in Greece," Riddell said. "Greece's goal may well be to try to protect these children, but it can't do that by locking them in dirty, crowded police cells, and making police play caretakers."
Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
LATEST NEWS
Joe Lieberman, Iraq War Cheerleader and Killer of Public Option, Dead at 82
"Joe Lieberman's legacy will live on as your medical debt."
Mar 27, 2024
While current and former officials across the U.S. political spectrum shared praise for and fond memories of former Sen. Joe Lieberman in response to news of his death on Wednesday, critics highlighted how some of his key positions led to the deaths of many others.
Lieberman's family said the 82-year-old died at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital after a fall at his home in the Bronx. He served in the Connecticut Senate, as the state's attorney general, and in the U.S. Senate—initially as a Democrat and eventually as an Independent. He was also Democratic former Vice President Al Gore's running mate in the 2000 presidential election.
"Up until the very end, Joe Lieberman enjoyed the high-quality, government-financed healthcare that he worked diligently to deny the rest of us. That's his legacy," said Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, which advocates for universal, single-payer healthcare.
As Warren Gunnels, majority staff director for Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.),
explained, "Joe Lieberman led the effort to ensure the Affordable Care Act did not include a public option or a reduction in the Medicare eligibility age to 55."
Noting that Lieberman also lied about the presence of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq—which was used to justify the 2003 U.S. invasion—Gunnels asked, "How many people unnecessarily died as a result?"
He was far from alone in highlighting the two defining positions.
The Lever's David Sirota declared, "RIP Joe Lieberman, Iraq War cheerleader who led the fight to make sure Medicare was not extended to millions of Americans who desperately needed the kind of healthcare coverage he enjoyed in the Senate."
The Debt Collective said on social media that "Joe Lieberman killed so many people when he killed the public option. Not to mention all the people he killed by cheerleading every war and every lie that led to war. A truly horrible person with a shameful legacy."
Journalist Jon Schwarz pointed out that Lieberman continued to lie about the WMDs long after the claims were debunked.
FormerMSNBC host Mehdi Hasan noted that Lieberman declined an opportunity to apologize for the disastrous war, sharing a clip from his on-camera interview with the ex-senator in 2021.
And please don\u2019t give me this \u2018don\u2019t speak ill of the dead\u2019 stuff - 1) I\u2019m not speaking ill, I\u2019m stating facts, and 2) public figures are public figures, and their obits reflect their legacies and so we should be honest in our accounts of their legacies. Not offensive but honest— (@)
"We lost a giant today. I often disagreed with Joe Lieberman but he was always honorable in the way he called for American troops to murder people abroad so he could get his jollies," said Matt Stoller of the American Economic Liberties Project in a series of sarcastic social media posts.
"Joe Lieberman balanced his love of other people fighting in immoral wars with a commitment to preventing Americans from getting healthcare," Stoller added. "Even after his Senate career, he showed his strong democratic values by lobbying for Chinese telecom firms. We will miss this man."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Enough Is Enough': Ireland Joins ICJ Genocide Case Against Israel
"What we saw on October 7 in Israel, and what we are seeing in Gaza now, represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale," said one top Irish official.
Mar 27, 2024
Citing Israel's "blatant" human rights violations in Gaza, Ireland's second-highest-ranking official said Wednesday that the country will join the South Africa-led genocide case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Irish Tánaiste Micheál Martin—the equivalent of a deputy prime minister in other parliamentary nations—said that Ireland decided to intervene in the case after analyzing the "legal and policy issues" pertaining to the case under review by the United Nations' top court.
"It is for the court to determine whether genocide is being committed," Martin—who also serves as Ireland's foreign and defense minister—said in a statement. "But I want to be clear in reiterating what I have said many times in the last few months; what we saw on October 7 in Israel, and what we are seeing in Gaza now, represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale."
Martin continued:
The taking of hostages. The purposeful withholding of humanitarian assistance to civilians. The targeting of civilians and of civilian infrastructure. The indiscriminate use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The use of civilian objects for military purposes. The collective punishment of an entire population.
The list goes on. It has to stop. The view of the international community is clear. Enough is enough. The U.N. Security Council has demanded an immediate cease-fire, the unconditional release of hostages, and the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale. The European Council has echoed this call.
South Africa's case—which is supported by over 30 countries, the Arab League, African Union, and others—incisively details Israel's conduct in the war, including the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, mostly women and children; the wounding of tens of thousands more; the forcible displacement of 90% of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people; and the inflicting of conditions leading to widespread starvation and disease. The filing also cited numerous genocidal statements by Israeli officials.
On January 26, the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza and ordered its government and military to prevent genocidal acts. Palestinian and international human rights defenders say Israel has ignored the order.
A draft report
released this week by the U.N.'s Human Rights Council found "reasonable grounds to believe" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a move that came on the same day as the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the ongoing war.
"The situation could not be more stark; half the population of Gaza face imminent famine and 100% of the population face acute food insecurity," said Martin. "As the U.N. secretary-general said as he inspected long lines of blocked relief trucks waiting to enter Gaza during his visit to Rafah at the weekend: 'It is time to truly flood Gaza with lifesaving aid. The choice is clear: surge or starvation.' I echo his words today."
In a St. Partick's Day White House meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden—a staunch supporter of Israel—Irish Toaiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar, who announced earlier this month that he would soon step down, said that "the Irish people are deeply troubled about the catastrophe that's unfolding before our eyes in Gaza."
"And when I travel the world, leaders often ask me why the Irish have such empathy for the Palestinian people," he added. "And the answer is simple: We see our history in their eyes—a story of displacement, of dispossession and national identity questioned and denied, forced emigration, discrimination, and now hunger."
Keep ReadingShow Less
House Democrat Calls GOP Budget a 'Blueprint for a Dystopian Hellscape'
Rep. Don Beyer warns the plan "would see unbridled benefits flowing to a wealthy and well-connected few while tens of millions of Americans lose healthcare, housing, retirement security, and food security."
Mar 27, 2024
As Republicans on Wednesday set their sights on a key seat opening up in the U.S. House of Representatives, the chamber's senior Democrat on the congressional Joint Economic Committee put out a blistering takedown of a top GOP budget proposal for the next fiscal year.
Congressman Don Beyer (D-Va.) took aim at the 180-page "Fiscal Sanity to Save America" plan released last week by the Republican Study Committee (RSC)—which includes about 80% of GOP House members—following proposals from Democratic President Joe Biden and House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas).
"The Republican Study Committee budget is a blueprint for a dystopian hellscape," he warned. "The vision offered by this group, which counts 4 in 5 House Republicans as members, would see unbridled benefits flowing to a wealthy and well-connected few while tens of millions of Americans lose healthcare, housing, retirement security, and food security."
RSC proposals to "dramatically weaken healthcare," Beyer noted, include turning Medicare into a voucher plan and rolling back Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provisions that cut costs for seniors; repealing tax subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and the law's protections for people with preexisting conditions; and transforming Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program into block grants to states.
As Common Dreams has reported, in addition to seeking cuts to Medicare and Social Security—while claiming to do nothing of the sort—the RSC has also launched a full-fledged assault on reproductive healthcare and rights, promoting 42 bills that would ban abortions after 15 weeks or even earlier, require unnecessary ultrasounds and 24-hour waiting periods, prohibit the use of fetal stem cells for research, and threaten access to in vitro fertilization, among other restrictions.
In addition to attacking reproductive freedom and key programs for seniors and low-income families, Beyer highlighted, the RSC wants to "weaken public health, public safety, and environmental protections," while "cutting taxes for the wealthy, by a lot."
The RSC advocates ending green tax credits from the IRA and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as well as slashing money for Community Oriented Policing Services and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The committee also calls for permanently lowering taxes for the ultrarich, indexing capital gains taxes to inflation, repealing the estate tax, rolling back the IRA's corporate alternative minimum tax, and eliminating funding intended to help the Internal Revenue Service catch wealthy tax cheats.
"Democrats believe there is a better way to get our fiscal house in order without betraying our values," said Beyer. "That starts with making smart investments in our people and our future while demanding that the rich and large corporations pay their fair share in taxes. The contrast between the Democratic approach and this Republican budget could not possibly be clearer."
Biden's budget blueprint—released as he prepares for an electoral rematch against former Republican President Donald Trump, who infamously cut taxes for rich people and corporations—proposes a 25% minimum tax for individuals with wealth of more than $100 million, along with ending capital income tax breaks and closing other loopholes.
Polling results released Tuesday by Morning Consult show that a majority of voters across party lines in key swing states support raising taxes on people who make more than $400,000 per year.
Biden and the divided Congress this past weekend narrowly avoided a government shutdown by passing a long-delayed spending package. Fiscal year 2025 is set to begin in October, setting up another election-year fight over funding.
In what's been
dubbed the "Great Resignation," a growing number of House Republicans have announced that they are not seeking reelection or even exited their seats early—shrinking the party's already slim majority in the lower chamber.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular