Even a well-seasoned social worker like Marleen Korthals Altes is surprised by how chaotic the Greek system is. Korthals Altes is from the Netherlands and works as a senior child protection advisor with the NGO Save the Children, which runs one of the country's 30 long-term shelters: "I have worked in Congo, Sierra Leone, Kenya, the Central African Republic and Mali. But Greece is the most complex place I have ever experienced," she says, sitting in a cafeteria in Victoria Square.
She says the legislation is complex, processes change all the time, there are ad hoc decisions or no decisions being made, a lack of coordination, and a variety of different practices in different places for the handling of the same kinds of cases. "We are talking about adolescents who have to wait endlessly for their asylum process to be completed, who feel they are wasting their time here, who don't understand why it takes a year to know if family reunification can happen," she says. "They have no work, they don't go to school, they receive no money. This situation has a huge impact on their psychosocial state."
Even when the youths find a shelter, there is little to do there - and nothing to keep them from drifting into prostitution.
Urgent Need for Reform
Seventeen-year-old Arash, from the Badghis Province in Afghanistan, has been in Athens for over a year and lives in a shelter run by an NGO. He initially rejected the men's advances in the park. "I was afraid, I thought: I can't do that. But after a few months I had no more money. So I said yes, it is wrong but I need money." Since then he has been earning his money with sex, around 100 euros per month. He says if he could find other work, he would stop immediately. But he's not allowed to work, and who wants to hire a 17-year-old? "When we have sex with an old man, we feel bad. This is the last resort. When you are a refugee and there is no one to support you, you must do these things."
He is ashamed, and above all else, doesn't want his family to find out. "I don't want to add to their problems by telling them what is going on." As for the shelter? When he tells the staff he has a problem, he says, they just say: "The door is open."
Arash's best friend from the shelter is Mahmud, a thin, clean-cut 15-year old boy with a daredevil attitude and inquisitive, smart eyes. Mahmud says he would never prostitute himself, but he toys with men who want that from him. Mahmud proudly points to his brand-new sneakers. "There is a man who calls me every day. He buys me clothes, dinner, and makes me promise I will go to his home. I take the things, but never go to him," he says, laughing.
Harvard professor Jacqueline Bhabha co-authored a scorching report about the situation of migrant children in Greece. She accuses the EU of being "guilty of a massive dereliction of responsibility" when it comes to underage refugees. "Giving children shelter and food is not enough. They need a future, education, work," she says. Bhabha and the report's co-author Vasileia Digidiki urge the Greek government to end the practice of detention, create additional specialized shelters for victims of abuse and exploitation, appoint well-trained guardians to protect children, establish an independent mechanism to oversee NGOs and, as an "urgent priority," integrate all migrant children into the formal Greek educational system.
But for Mohammad, Arash and Ahmad, all of this might happen too late.
Ahmad, the teenager with the vast client list, says he has long-since abandoned any hope of making a decent life in Greece. "I tell myself, do this just once in your life. Do this and then you will be finished. You will have the money, and then leave. This book will be closed."
He dreams of studying law or journalism, ideally in Germany. "And with my diploma in hand, I can one day return home and tell my family: I made it."