Providing guidance and empowerment to Unaccompanied Minors in Greece

Children – especially those who are unaccompanied – are amongst the most vulnerable asylum seekers. In 2021, 23,600 unaccompanied children lodged asylum applications in Europe, this was a 66% increase compared to 2020 and accounted for 4% of all applications. This percentage share remains stable in 2022 so far.

In July 2021, the Greek Special Secretary for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors (SSPUAM), together with the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), initiated the MENTORSHIP project as a pilot aiming at providing guidance and empowering unaccompanied children in Greece, through a network of trained mentors.

Former unaccompanied children, who are now adults, act as mentors in order to provide peer-to-peer support to current child applicants facing similar experiences. As young adults, who have reached Greece as UAMs, mentors act as role models who can impart their knowledge and experience to inform children about available options, support their needs, and boost their confidence by drawing on their example. It should be noted that mentors not only aim at helping children improve their daily lives by sharing their experiences, but most importantly through effective community-level messaging, mentors aim at preventing children’s exploitation and abuse.

During the press conference that took place on 22 July in Athens, in the context of the excellent cooperation with the Special Secretary for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors, Ms. Nina Gregori noted that "EUAA's support has focused on the implementation of the operational and legal framework, including the National Strategy for the protection of unaccompanied children and the guardianship system, but also on the voluntary relocation program which has been a new start for 1,251 children in EU countries.’’ She also added that the successful innovative project of the mentors, which completes a year of operation, has provided guidance to over 340 unaccompanied children of fifteen different nationalities.