Idomeni: vulnerable child refugees must be protected

The evacuation of thousands of people from the informal refugee camp in Idomeni, northern Greece started this morning.

Around 40% of people in the camp are children. We’re urging the Greek authorities to ensure vulnerable child refugees are protected.

Traumatised children

“Many of the children, especially lone children, have been through enough trauma already, either back home, along the journey or where they’ve been staying for weeks in transit facilities lacking basic services,” says Amy Frost, who leads our response to the refugee crisis in Greece.

“Additional relocations to formal camps need to be managed sensitively to ensure the process is not adding to their trauma.”

Lack of services

We’re extremely concerned about the state of some of the camps where families are being relocated, lacking basic services, like bathrooms and sanitation.

We’re also worried about the lack of specialised services, including safe shelter and spaces for vulnerable children.

Keeping families together

“Authorities managing the relocation to camps and the management of these receiving facilities need to ensure basic needs will be adequately met, before they relocate thousands of vulnerable families and children there,” says Amy.

“For weeks now, authorities have been urging refugees and migrants to voluntarily move to official camps. Now that the evacuation has started, it’s paramount that authorities make it a priority to keep families together, and to ensure that children are being transferred to facilities where they can live in conditions that meet European and international standards for child welfare.”

Help us do more

With our partner Arsis, we’ve been running a space where children can learn, play and feel safe at Idomeni, and monitoring and assessing conditions for vulnerable children, especially those traveling alone. We’ve also run mother-and-baby areas and distributed food in the camp.

DONATE NOW: Help us protect and feed child refugees.

RELATED STORIES:

• Refugee crisis: “Mothers wrapped their babies in rubbish bags trying to keep them dry.”
• Most child refugees stranded alone in Greece have nowhere safe to sleep.
• I hope these child refugees’ dreams don’t come true.