Sakellaropoulou: Greece offers unaccompanied minors ‘brighter future’
Greece has set the protection of unaccompanied migrant and refugee children as its highest moral obligation, President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said on Thursday after visiting a facility for such children run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Halandri, northern Athens.
Greece has assumed the responsibility “despite the fact that is bearing a disproportionate burden in the migration and refugees wave,” she noted.
Sakellaropoulou, accompanied by Deputy Migration and Asylum Minister Sofia Voultepsi and newly appointed Special Secretary for the Protection of Unaccompanied Children Heracles Moskoff, was briefed by the coordinators about the facility’s operations, and she spoke with children hosted there.
“The operation of six hosting facilities for unaccompanied minors, which was implemented by IOM and particularly the structure in Halandri for boys aged 12 to 18, provides children that abandoned their country with the opportunity to heal their wounds and make a new start,” said Sakellaropoulou, adding that “we are here to offer them a brighter future.” [AMNA]
