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GreekReporter.comGreeceFemale Refugees Face Sexual Exploitation in Greece

Female Refugees Face Sexual Exploitation in Greece

m6TtBgFk173GszW1yNx7Female refugees face sexual exploitation while children are vulnerable to kidnapping, on the perilous journey from Turkey to Greece and then to northern Europe, says an Al Jazeera report.
The report follows the story of Samira, a 32-year-old Moroccan woman who traveled from her homeland to Turkey and then to Greece on a dinghy. She wants to find a job in Europe, any job, so she can send money to feed her children. Then she wants to bring them over to Europe so that they can have a better life.
When Samira reached the island of Lesbos, she discovered that her savings she carried close to her body were missing.
Samira suspected a group of Moroccan men and when she confronted them they became aggressive and asked her to follow them. “When I refused, they became aggressive and said I would be on my own,” she told Al Jazeera.
Once on Lesbos, Samira posed as a Syrian, asking for refugee status. She hopes that she can cross the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and then continue to northern Europe.
According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), women traveling alone face a higher risk of sexual abuse as they move through Europe or stop in cramped reception centers. The UNHCR and Save the Children expressed concerns over the risk of exploitation faced by women and children within the reception centers.
“Cases of sexual violence have been reported to our staff,” said Ron Redmond, a spokesperson for the UN agency in Greece. “On one of the islands, our protection staff prevented the rape of a young woman by a large group of men.”
Save the Children issued a report detailing cases of attempted sexual abuse, including one involving a young girl who was grabbed by a man as she went to the toilet. Other women and children interviewed by the organization expressed their discomfort at having to sleep in tents with men who they did not know.
From testimonies collected by the UNHCR, those who have run out money or have been robbed on the way are more likely to engage in “survival sex” in order to pay smugglers to continue their journey.
Unaccompanied minors face even greater risks as they proceed with their journey. EU member states have reported at least 7,000 unaccompanied minors, although the actual figure is thought to be much higher.
Data collected by Missing Children Europe shows that more than 50 percent of unaccompanied minors go missing within the first 48 hours from their arrival at the facility, and the majority of them are never found.
“Many of them do not seek assistance because they are carrying an immense burden: they have been instructed to reach the country of destination to ask for family reunion or start working and send money home,” says Anna Panou, a psychologist operating at the Moria camp with Doctors of the World. “As they perceive their families’ lives to be in danger, they feel the need to move fast.”
To avoid delaying their journey, children often lie about their age and therefore fail to be recognized as vulnerable. Age-testing methods are in place but, as they do not guarantee accurate results, authorities often have no choice other than to accept the child’s claim.
Following their stay in the first reception center, unaccompanied minors are then moved to shelters on the Greek mainland, where they can move freely. While in the shelters, they feel that they are about to be returned to their home country, so their disappearance is almost certain.
The lack of available information on a refugee child makes it even more difficult for the authorities to track him or her down. Fingerprinting of children under the age of 14 is not usually carried out at the first reception centers. This makes it even more difficult for authorities to conduct investigations and identify missing children.
According to Zoi Levaditou, who is responsible for the International Organization for Migration in Lesbos, the main difficulty in protecting the most vulnerable is that “they trust smugglers more than they trust official organizations. This makes it more difficult to identify those at risk.”
“If a woman is in distress, we advise her to apply for asylum in Greece and seek help,” says Panou. “However, she is an adult and, if she chooses to leave, nothing can be done to stop her.”
The European law enforcement agency EUROPOL has identified cases of groups who smuggle for profit and then force those they smuggle into sexual exploitation and drug dealing.
EUROPOL says there is a rise on the number of children who begin their journey with their family but then getting lost or separated along the way. The Smile of the Child, a Greek non-profit voluntary organization, has assisted families who chose to leave their children with smugglers or friends in order to move faster to the country of final destination.
“When the families later want to locate them, some find out that they have disappeared,” says Kostas Yannopulos, the president of the NGO. “These children are either abandoned by the person who was supposed to take care of them, or they have been trafficked.”

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