At least 400 unaccompanied children stranded in Idomeni

At least 10,000 unaccompanied child refugees have disappeared after arriving in Europe, Europol claims in a recent report and many are feared to have fallen into the hands of organised trafficking networks.

The Greek government estimates that 12,000 immigrants and refugees are stranded in Idomeni, northern Greece, waiting to cross the borders and continue their journey and about 4,000 of them are children. Without, though, a reliable registration system is not possible to identify how many children are travelling alone.

One member of the non-government organization Save The Children, Gabriel Cassino, told protothema.gr: “It is likely that there are 400 unaccompanied children aged up to 17 years in Idomeni, maybe more, who are waiting to pass the border and continue their journey to northern countries of Europe. But, the exact number is not clear, no one knows how many unaccompanied children are in Idomeni due to the lack of coordination, legislative gaps and closed borders”.
These are minor children who are either orphans or their parents allowed them to travel alone or along with a relative or a friend.

A volunteer of Save the Children said that, “It is so easy a child to go missing here in Idomeni”.

Most unaccompanied children claim that they are travelling with an uncle, and probably that’s what they have been told to say so as not to show that they are travelling alone. Only the voluntary organizations are trying to locate these children, while the state is totally absent.