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Greece pressured to stop holding unaccompanied refugee kids behind bars

Imagine a medieval dungeon, concrete floor, excrement and urine on floor, no access to food or water, locked behind bars, 5 or 6 children per cell. This is how a clinical director of the Childrens' E-hospital described the inhumane conditions unaccompanied refugee children were living in in Kos.
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Syrian refugee children stand next to a pile of life jackets left by Syrians moments after arriving onboard an overcrowded dinghy at a beach on the Greek island of Kos. (Reuters/ Yannis Behrakis)

The island of Kos in Greece, a Mediterranean country viewed as a haven for refugees, has instead been a situation of crisis. 

As refugee children arrive without parents or guardians, they've been taken into police custody... and locked up for days at a time. 

Imagine a medieval dungeon, concrete floor, excrement and urine on floor, no access to food or water, locked behind bars, 5 or 6 children per cell. This is how Tim Ubhi of the Childrens' E-hospital describes the inhumane conditions unaccompanied refugee children were living in in Kos.

Tim Ubhi has visited these children in Kos.  He is clinical director of the Childrens' E-hospital, a British organisation providing humanitarian and medical aid to the refugees. We reached him in Braham, England.

An migrant boy cries after arriving on an overcrowded raft on the Greek island of Lesbos. Almost 400,000 people have arrived in Greece this year, according to the UNHCR agency, overwhelming the cash-strapped nation's ability to cope. (Reuters/Yannis Behrakis)

​We tried to contact the Civil Protection Office in Greece, which was housing the children but have received no comment back. 

♦ More from our special, No Way Home: Children of the Refugee Crisis
 

This segment was produced by The Current's Sarah Grant.
 

RELATED LINKS

♦ 'Orphan' children locked up in 'medieval' prisons alongside adult criminals on Greek island of Kos
♦ Med migrant crisis leaving orphan children starving and fearing rape in Greece

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