The Criminalisation of Unaccompanied Migrant Minors - Voices from the Detention Processes in Greece

Session Submission Type: Author meets critics

Abstract

In times when migration flows are increasing considerably on a global level, Greece has become a focus as a key entry country into the European Union for significantly high numbers of asylum-seeking individuals, including unaccompanied migrant minors escaping unsafety and aiming for international protection abroad. Between 2016 and 2020, upon irregular entry into the country, unaccompanied children were by Greek law to be temporarily placed in a protective environment, pending referral to suitable accommodation. However, in practice, they were being subjected to detention procedures that could not be understood as protective or in line with the requirements of the national framework and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Greece is a signatory. This raised crucial questions in the field of children’s rights and migration policing, given that the reality that unaccompanied minors experienced in detention had remained highly under-researched.

One of the first books of its kind, this recently published monograph introduces the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis in socio-legal studies and reveals unexplored areas with respect to the conditions of detention for unaccompanied minors in Greece. Towards understanding said conditions, voice is given to migrant children and professionals throughout, as the author combines a legal analysis with criminological approaches and provides a rich in detail picture of the context that detained minors were experiencing at the time. The research findings demonstrate that unaccompanied children in Greece are criminalised through detention processes, while being deprived of the right to be heard. Hence, by assessing the lived experiences of participants, emphasis is placed on the discrepancy between the law and practice. As a result, this project makes a meaningful and novel contribution to contemporary knowledge with a view to safeguarding the fundamental rights of unaccompanied migrant minors experiencing detention upon arrival in European host countries.

Subtopic

• Topic 3: Crime Correlates / Immigration / Migration (Immigration, Crime and Citizenship WG)

Critics

• Rita Faria, CIJ - Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Justice, University of Porto

• Marijke Van Buggenhout, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Book Author

• Ioannis Papadopoulos, Directorate of Social Sciences; University of Salford, Manchester, UK