By Dimitris Chatzinikolas, Vasilis Galoupis, Panos Katsiahnias, Vagelis Triantis
“All the Invisible Children” was a 2005 Franco-Italian film by Kusturica, Wu, Spike Lee, and R. Scott, featuring 7 stories from different countries (war-stricken Africa, Serbia, USA, Brazil, Great Britain, Italy, and China) with heroes children living on the margins, falling victim to exploitation, social inequalities, and wars. Children who went through adulthood without knowing what it was like to be a child.
In Greece, the 12-year-old from Kolonos, the “Ark of the World”, the gypsy children from Roma settlements, the unaccompanied refugee children, the Greek children whose families live below the poverty line and so many others, the case of “Prosecutorial Children” is a unique case in itself.
These are the children who are taken into custody by the prosecution from their families (often single-parent families) or are unaccompanied refugee children and taken to the country’s pediatric hospitals (usually the three pediatric hospitals of Attica, the Aglaia Kyriakou Children’s Hospital, the Agia Sophia Children’s Hospital, and the Penteli Children’s Hospital) in order to make the necessary examinations until they are forwarded to structures but due to the known deficiencies and bureaucracy, these children remain in a hospital ward for many months and even year without any care! Without child psychologists, without teachers, without the necessary socialization for their tender age but with a plate of food a day and a bed to sleep in at night.
The ‘Data Journalist’ survey today reveals that many of these children are exploited and some of them simply disappear after spending much of their day in the courtyard of the hospitals where they live.
Today we reveal that apart from the case of a mother’s complaint about the repeated rape of her 7-year-old son by a 14-year-old child, in the middle of last November, at the Children’s Hospital, the research of the “Data Journalist” reveals that on November 5, a child who is hospitalized there and is facing health problems twisted and broke the fingers (even causing damage to the tendons) of a 14-year-old.
The Data Journalist research team decided to make a debut with extensive research for these children. Doctors, lawyers, and the President of the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees (POEDIN) spoke on camera to colleagues of the team who visited the three pediatric hospitals of Athens.
At the same time, we investigated the current situation in a number of European countries but also in large countries such as the USA and China and of course the current legislation in Greece and the European directives. In addition, we contacted the relevant ministries in an effort to find out who is responsible.
If there is one thing to keep in mind, it is that it is the Prosecutor of Minors who will handle the case, in the second instance when these children arrive at the hospitals, the responsibility passes to the Ministry of Health, while the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs responsible for Welfare and Social Solidarity, Domna Michailidou, is responsible for the transfer of these children from the hospital wards to the facilities.
It is easy to see that responsibility is lost between those responsible, as long as you imagine that there was a case of an infant who initially spent eight years in the hospital and then in the nursery!
We also reveal that the Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court Georgia Adilini, responsible for “the supervision of cases concerning the protection, delinquency, victimization, and custody of minors” knew at least since June 2021 what is happening with these children and therefore sent a circular (which we are publishing today) to the Prosecutors of the Court of First Instance throughout the country where instructions were given to the prosecutors of minors who handle such cases in order to minimize the time spent in hospitals.
In the same circular, the chief prosecutor noted the “reluctance of child protection bodies to receive minors, especially when they present behavioral problems”!
