The case concerns five unaccompanied migrant children detained in the closed controlled centre in Samos, Greece. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that the ‘safe area’ within the facility constituted a place of deprivation of liberty. The children were detained under “extremely overcrowded conditions” without adequate medical care for “systematic and prolonged period, without any new legal basis, individualized assessment or judicial review.” Moreover, the children were systematically denied access to judicial review, guardians, legal representation, and automatic periodic reviews. The Working Group concluded that their deprivation of liberty was “not merely unlawful but fundamentally arbitrary,” violates the fundamental principle of the best interests of the child and constitutes a serious breach of their rights under international law.
Read the full decision here.