Rights rap for Lesvos center
An international human rights group based in New York yesterday called on authorities in Greece to create special centers for unaccompanied child immigrants arriving in the country, following reports of dozens of minors going on hunger strike last week to demand their release from a horribly overcrowded detention center on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos. Human Rights Watch called for the creation of «open centers where [child migrants] can receive care, counseling, legal aid… and enjoy decent living standards,» noting that unaccompanied minors had staged a similar hunger strike on the island of Leros last year. «That children as young as 12 were again on hunger strike in Greek detention is a gross indictment of the government’s failure to care for them,» said HRW spokesperson Simone Troller. She acknowledged the «serious challenges» faced by Greece due to its location at the European Union’s southeastern border, «but that does not excuse its failure to protect those who are most vulnerable,» she added.
