UNHCR calls for creation of more child immigrant centres reported in 142 on Monday

Aug 25, 2009, 17:19 GMT

Athens - The director of UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency in Greece, called Monday for the creation of more special centre for unaccompanied child immigrants and refugees.

'The arrival of an increasing number of unaccompanied minors in Greece is a major problem,' George Tsarbopoulos, the director of UNHCR in Greece told the German Press Agency dpa in a telephone

interview.

Tsarbopoulos, who recently paid a two-day visit to the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos, called for the creation of more reception centers similar to the Agiasos centre for unaccompanied minors currently in operation on the island.

'The minors should not be kept in detention but referred to adequate reception facilities responding to their needs. These days the Agiasos centre received more than 150 children while it was only created to house 100,' he said.

'More such facilities should be created since the existing ones are insufficient. To that effect, we are in contact with the Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity, which has promised to resolve the issue of children still remaining in the Pagani (Lesbos) detention centre by transferring them to proper facilities by the end of the month, as well as to create new reception facilities for unaccompanied children.'

He said the Agiasos centre was in good condition and met all the proper health requires. Dpa erroneously reported on Monday that the UNHCR had called for the centre to be closed. The UNHCR director made the comments after reports of dozens of minors detained at Pagani recently went on a hunger strike to demand their release from the horribly overcrowded centre.

More than 800 persons, including 150 unaccompanied minors, are currently detained at the Pagani centre, which has a capacity of 250.

The children, some of them detained for two months, had released a letter during a recent hunger strike denouncing the deplorable conditions in which they are being kept, including ill-treatment by the police, unclean water, diseases and no access to a courtyard.

'Clearly human rights are not being respected ... I saw 150 women with 50 babies cramped in one room and almost all the babies had health problems, according to what Medecins San Frontieres staff working in Pagani reported', Tsarbopoulos stated.

He said that the Pagani detention centre should be closed and a new modern constructed which meets with European and international human rights standards, as the government had promised almost one year ago.

Lesbos is a major transit point for migrant smugglers operating from nearby Turkey from where thousands of migrants have attempted to gain access to the European Union via Greece.