Sexual abuse and exploitation of unaccompanied migrant children in Greece: Identifying risk factors and gaps in services during the European migration crisis

Abstract

The present study explores sexual abuse and exploitation of unaccompanied migrant children in Greece, and the risk factors associated with their occurrence. This study was conducted in Greece during 2016, at a time when inadequate official response to the ongoing migration crisis, including to the large number of unaccompanied child arrivals, led to a dire child protection crisis. Twenty-four in depth interviews were conducted with key informants in four of the main migrant hosting localities in Greece. The qualitative data reveal a series of institutional, legislative and individual factors that routinely expose unaccompanied children to sexual abuse and exploitation. The absence of safe and legal paths to appropriate migration destinations, the impossibility of returning home to oppressive and harmful environments and the daily exposure to unsatisfactory, sometimes inhumane, living conditions inside migrant facilities, are the main factors that drive unaccompanied migrant children toward sexual exploitation. The study also catalogs a series of significant gaps in both government and non-government responses. Among the most important are the absence of an integrated child protection system that spans national and local jurisdictions, the failure of existing child welfare systems to classify unaccompanied migrant children as a distinct and unique population requiring immediate attention and care irrespective of migration status, and the lack of properly trained and qualified staff to work with this uniquely vulnerable population. The study concludes that the current situation is evidence not of a migration crisis per se, but of a crisis in child protection.