‘The boys from the land don’t get anything’: unaccompanied minors’ experience of child protection environments and the humanitarian border in Greece

ABSTRACT

We examine how the changes in migration patterns and humanitarian assistance policies in response to the 2015–2016 migration crisis in Greece affected unaccompanied migrant children’s access to shelters in Greece. Forty-four migrant youth aged 18–21 who arrived in Greece as unaccompanied children were recruited for in-depth interviews regarding their experiences in Greece. Life history calendars were constructed to establish the sequence of events and changes in living situations. We found that after EU-Turkey Statement was signed in March of 2016, unaccompanied minors’ experience of the humanitarian border changed according to the route by which they entered Greece. The policy changes that were implemented in March 2016 created new disparities in access to child protection settings based on minors’ route of entry into Greece.

KEYWORDS:

• Unaccompanied migrant children
• child protection
• adult–child power dynamics
• qualitative methodology
• Greece
• European migration crisis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Make a try: To attempt an illegal border crossing

2 The “hotspot approach” was endorsed by the European Council in June 2015 aiming to offer operational support to those Member States experiencing disproportionate migratory pressure. The hotspots are reception points where Frontex, the European Asylum Support Office and Europol coordinate the identification, registration and process of newly arrived migrants, the return of those who are not eligible of asylum, as well as the dismantling of trafficking and smuggling networks (ECRE 2016).

3 This study received ethical approval from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health institutional review board.

4 Stay: This English word was used by Urdu speaking participants to refer to any documentation that permitted them to exist legally on Greek territory for any period of time. It encompassed everything from residency cards to deportation orders, the latter of which allowed migrants some days to exit Greek territory. Most participants were not able to clarify which documents they were referring to as their stay.

5 In-Charge: The English phrase “In-Charge” is used by Urdu speakers to refer to responsible staff in accommodation facilities. It is not used for interpreters employed by the facilities.

6 Musafer: means traveler in Urdu and Dari/Farsi. It is how migrants and asylum seekers describe themselves, irrespective of legal status.

7 Agent: The English word is used broadly by Urdu and Dari speakers to refer to operatives in the smuggling economy.

8 Musafer khana: literally means traveller’s house in Urdu and Dari/Farsi. Refers’ to smugglers’ safehouses.

9 Red card: refers to an older version of an asylum application card, also described in (Cabot 2014). At the time of this study, the version of the asylum application card used was referred to as the “white card”.

10 White card: An asylum application card. This is an unlaminated piece of paper that contains the migrant’s name, photograph, date of birth, country of origin, and asylum case number. It functions as the migrants’ identity card when he or she has applied for asylum but has not received a decision.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Johns Hopkins Center for Qualitative Research in Health and Medicine [no Grant number associated]; Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting [no Grant number associated].