Athens, 3 April 2020<\/p>\n
We, the undersigned organizations, jointly call on European governments to proceed immediately with the emergency relocation of unaccompanied children from the Reception and Identification Centres (RICs) on the Greek islands<\/strong>, with no discrimination, giving precedence to existing family links and the best interests of the child.<\/p>\n In mid-March, a group of seven EU member states announced they would take in unaccompanied children from the islands. Since then, while an additional country pledged to relocate, efforts have largely stalled. Yet, immediate <\/strong>action is all the more urgent in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/strong><\/p>\n We welcome Commissioner Johansson\u2019s announcement in the European Parliament on 2 April, that a group of children will be transferred to Luxembourg next week. It is imperative this takes place as planned, and we\u00a0encourage other countries to swiftly do the same.<\/p>\n Now, more than ever, the protection of unaccompanied children needs to be ensured and all efforts to help decongest the RICs must be fully supported, if the people living there are to have any chance of protecting their lives and health and complying with measures aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n Tens of thousands of people remain trapped in the camps on the Greek islands, including older people, people with disabilities, those with serious health conditions, families with children \u00a0and pregnant women. Amongst them are 1,752 unaccompanied children[1]<\/a>. Most of them are deprived of access to their most basic rights, such as shelter and adequate food, medical, psychosocial care, as well as education. Overcrowding and extremely limited access to running water, toilets and showers, make it impossible to abide by the guidelines for protecting oneself from COVID-19<\/strong>, putting them at significantly heightened risk of infection, serious illness or death, especially \u00a0those with underlying health conditions.<\/p>\n With eight cases of COVID-19 already confirmed as of the start of April among the local population on the island of Lesvos, and one on Samos[2]<\/a>, now is the time to act.<\/p>\n The recent pledges by -now- eight states to relocate 1,600 of these unaccompanied children from the islands sent a much-needed signal of solidarity. Honouring these commitments without delay is now of critical importance to protect these children.<\/p>\n The European response to the pandemic has already demonstrated that the swift and safe transfer of people to EU member states from across the globe is possible. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the European Emergency Response Center has evacuated more than 10,000 EU citizens from China, Japan, the US, Morocco, Tunisia and other countries[3]<\/a>. Germany alone was able to repatriate 170,000 holiday-makers around the world in a matter of days due to the pandemic.[4]<\/a> The same must be done for the most vulnerable people in the Greek island camps. Doctors, public health professionals and academics[5]<\/a> have already outlined how children can be relocated from the RICs with sufficient protection and health security measures, in line with medical guidelines for COVID-19.<\/p>\n We urge<\/strong> Germany, France, Portugal, Finland, Lithuania, Croatia, Ireland<\/strong> to<\/strong> follow Luxembourg\u2019s lead in this emergency, and ensure that their pledged relocations are immediately implemented. All relocations must be done in line with the best interests of the child, with priority to family links, ensuring broad eligibility that does not discriminate against specific nationalities, gender, date of arrival or certain age groups. <\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, we call on additional European countries to join with pledges of their own to relocate more of these children and ensure that all unaccompanied children now trapped in the island RICs in Greece can be safely relocated immediately.<\/strong><\/p>\n Where there is political will, these transfers are possible. There is no time to lose.<\/strong><\/p>\n Signed by:<\/p>\n ActionAid Hellas<\/p>\n Action for Education<\/p>\n Amnesty International<\/p>\n ARSIS \u2013 Association for the Social Support of Youth<\/p>\n Avocats Sans Fronti\u00e8res, France<\/p>\n Better Days<\/p>\n Caritas Europa<\/p>\n Caritas Hellas<\/p>\n Center for Health Equity Education and Research International Group AMKE CHEERing<\/p>\n \u010ce\u0161i pom\u00e1haj\u00ed, Czech Republic<\/p>\n COSPE, Italy<\/p>\n CVCS, Italy<\/p>\n Danish Refugee Council (DRC)<\/p>\n Defence for Children the Netherlands<\/p>\n Defence for Children International, Greece<\/p>\n Diaconia ECCB \u2013 Centre of Relief and Development, Czech Republic<\/p>\n Dirty Girls of Lesvos<\/p>\n Donate4Refugees, UK<\/p>\n Dynamo International \u2013 Street Workers Network, Belgium<\/p>\n Echo100Plus<\/p>\n Fair Planet<\/p>\n Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid<\/p>\n FOCSIV Italy<\/p>\n Free Movement Skateboarding, UK<\/p>\n Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)<\/p>\n Greek Forum of Refugees (GFR)<\/p>\n Help Refugees\/Choose Love<\/p>\n HIAS Greece<\/p>\n HuBB – Humans Before Borders, Portugal<\/p>\n HumanRights360<\/p>\n Human Rights Watch<\/p>\n Humanity Now, USA<\/p>\n I AM YOU<\/p>\n Indigo Volunteers, UK<\/p>\n International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) Europe<\/p>\n International Rescue Committee (IRC)<\/p>\n Khora<\/p>\n Lighthouse Relief (LHR)<\/p>\n Lumos Foundation<\/p>\n M\u00e9decins du Monde (MdM)<\/p>\n Metadrasi<\/p>\n Mobile Info Team<\/p>\n Network for Children\u2019s Rights<\/p>\n Northern Lights Aid<\/p>\n Office of Displaced Designers<\/p>\n OMEP<\/p>\n Pampiraiki Support Initiative for Refugees & Migrants<\/p>\n Praksis<\/p>\n ReFOCUS Media Labs<\/p>\n Refugee Legal Support<\/p>\n Refugee Rescue<\/p>\n Refugee Rights Europe<\/p>\n Refugee Support Europe, Cyprus<\/p>\n Refugee Youth Service, UK\/France<\/p>\n SAO Association, for displaced women, Switzerland<\/p>\n SEEBR\u00dcCKE, Germany\/ Switzerland\/ Belgium\/ Austria<\/p>\n Seeds of Humanity, Israel<\/p>\n Seeds of Humanity Hellas<\/p>\n ShowerPower<\/p>\n Solidarity Now<\/p>\n SOS Villages Greece<\/p>\n Stichting Vluchteling, Netherlands<\/p>\n Still I Rise<\/p>\n Terre des hommes<\/p>\n The Home Project<\/p>\n Velos Youth<\/p>\n Verein Fair, Switzerland<\/p>\n [1]<\/a>http:\/\/www.ekka.org.gr\/images\/%CE%A3%CE%A4%CE%91%CE%A4%CE%99%CE%A3%CE%A4%CE%99%CE%9A%CE%91_2020\/EKKA%20Dashboard%2029-2-2020.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n [2]<\/a> https:\/\/eody.gov.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/covid-gr-daily-report-29-03-20.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n [3]<\/a>https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/live-work-travel-eu\/health\/coronavirus-response\/crisis-management_en<\/a>, accessed 2 April 2020<\/p>\n [4]<\/a>https:\/\/euobserver.com\/coronavirus\/147944?utm_source=euobs&utm_medium=email<\/a><\/p>\n [5]<\/a>https:\/\/www.evacuate-moria.com\/?fbclid=IwAR3UVJh6439OgpQdjOp8Te5rpS_z813xs1-RdhoozpL1EdCRh1PiGrV6pqU<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Athens, 3 April 2020 We, the undersigned organizations, jointly call on European governments to proceed immediately with the emergency relocation of unaccompanied children from the Reception and Identification Centres (RICs) on the Greek islands, with no discrimination, giving precedence to existing family links and the best interests of the child. In mid-March, a group of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocacy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8573,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8571\/revisions\/8573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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