Collective complaint against Greece for non compliance with the right to housing

 

The International Commission of Jurists and the European Council for Refugees and Exiles lodged a collective complaint against Greece before the European Committee on Social Rights for violations of migrant and asylum-seeking children’s rights, both with families and unaccompanied, under the revised European Social Charter on several accounts. 

 

Legal basis: The alleged grievances include the non-compliance with the right to housing; the right of children and young persons to social, legal and economic protection; the right of the family to social, legal and economic protection; the right to protection of health; the right to social and medical assistance; and the right to education.

 

Violation of Articles 31(1), 31(2), 16, 17, 7(10), 11(1), 11(3) and 13 of the Charter towards unaccompanied migrant children in Greece and accompanied migrant children on the North Eastern Aegean islands on account of the grave saturation of reception facilities which are meant to assure basic care and protection of children, the deleterious conditions that children are subject to for lengthy periods of time as a result of the serious shortcomings in reception, or when living without any shelter, and the danger that such conditions pose for children’s mental and psychical health, as well as a lack of access to education for migrant children on the North Eastern Aegean islands.