Just over 30 per cent of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are allowed into Greece, leaving the rest in limbo or rejected according to a new report.

The report, ‘Without Papers, There is No Life‘ by aid agencies Save the Children and the Greek Council for Refugees, found that only 981 out of 3,175 asylum applications from unaccompanied children were accepted last year.

As for the rest, they were said to be either rejected or kept in the asylum process with no given timeline.

Save the Children are led to believe that many of the lone children were denied the right to protection and left without the legal documentation needed to enable them to remain in the country.

Senior Advocacy Advisor at Save the Children, Daniel Gorevan, said these children “live in insecurity and fear, at risk of exploitation and abuse”.

Both agencies call for the Greek authorities to review their policies, which are out of line with almost half of the other EU states.

Director of the Greek Council for Refugees, Lefteris Papagiannakis, said Greece must follow suit with the other nations, who grant residence permits to unaccompanied girls and boys, serving their best interests as children.

“Greece must keep pace with other EU Member States. Girls and boys seeking safety should be offered official documents and protection as soon as they reach Greek shores. No child takes the decision to leave their home country lightly – many are fleeing war, hunger, persecution, and the impact of climate change. Without proper documents they risk becoming victims of exploitation and abuse,” he said.

“Denied legal documentation, children can also accumulate debts from covering their basic needs, leaving them even more exposed to abuse.”

The children who remain undocumented become too scared to leave their accommodation in case authorities target them, while those who are registered as adults face the risk of being detained and returned to their home country.

Included in the report were interviews from a dozen unaccompanied children, one of them was 17-year-old Hakim, who is unregistered and fears of returning home.

“I have never been outside the camp. I am afraid that if I leave the camp the police might ask for my documents and will deport me back to Türkiye and then to Afghanistan. And then I will have no choice but to commit suicide,” he said.

Many refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa use Greece as a main route into the EU.

Just last month, a migrant boat capsized and sunk off the shores of Greece.