Unaccompanied minors made up 12.4 percent of asylum seekers in Greece in 2017, according to Eurostat figures released this week.
Roughly 2,500 unaccompanied under-18s applied for asylum in the country during 2017, up four percent since 2016 and the third-highest number in the EU after Italy and Germany.
An overwhelming 94 percent of unaccompanied minors applying for asylum in Greece in 2017 were boys, while children under 14 accounted for five percent. The greatest number (48 percent) were from Pakistan, 21 percent from Afghanistan and 13 percent from Syria.
Throughout the EU, there were 31,395 asylum applications submitted by unaccompanied minors in 2017, accounting for 14.8 percent of the total. More than 10,000 applications by unaccompanied minors, or 32 percent of the EU total and 65 percent of all applications in that country, were submitted in Italy.
Germany came second with 9,100 (29 percent), Greece with 2,500 (eight percent) followed by the United Kingdom with 2,200 (seven percent), Eurostat reported.
Source: AMNA
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