Afghanistan's children adrift on road to asylum

By Niki Kitsantonis

PATRAS, Greece:
Most of the children said their parents in Afghanistan had paid smugglers to escort them to safety. Many stopped off for months in Iran before fleeing westward to escape deportation to their war-torn homeland. For most, Patras is the penultimate stop of their long journey to Western Europe. But they are far from the sanctuary they seek. The Greek office of the United Nations refugee office wants "immediate support" for about 400 children who scattered across Patras last month when the police dismantled a makeshift settlement that mushroomed near the port's entrance over the past few years. The police detained half the camp's 3,000 adult residents, almost all Afghans. Since then many of the children have slept on streets and in squares, falling victim to new traffickers offering an organized crossing, aid groups said.

Some children were rounded up this month before the city's annual carnival - which attracts thousands of visitors - and sent to hostels in other cities. But most are still adrift in Patras.
The Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg, said he was worried about the children and wanted the local authorities to set up camps for them. "Special assistance should be urgently given to the minors," he said.

But the authorities here have refused to do so, arguing that a camp would become a magnet for ever more migrants.
Aid groups said children should be regarded as minors rather than migrants. Giorgos Karapiperis, a doctor with a local Red Cross team that is offering shelter and advice to the migrants, said: "We are closing our eyes to a real problem. There are laws which dictate that we help such children."

The death of a 15-year-old on a ferry leaving Patras could have been prevented if such laws had been upheld, said George Moschos, the Greek ombudsman for children's rights. The boy had hidden under a truck and had suffocated on its exhaust fumes. A deportation order was found by the Italian authorities in his pocket.
Port officials in Patras said children hide on trucks regularly. "Around 600 trucks board ships here daily," an official said. "We try to check them all but it's chaos."