IOM, the International Organization for Migration, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, today welcomed the relocation of 12 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from Greece to Luxembourg. The children, who had been living in overcrowded reception and identification centres for several months on the islands of Lesvos, Samos and Chios, arrived safely in Luxembourg this afternoon. Germany is in the process of relocating another group of unaccompanied children from Greece, who are due to arrive this weekend.
These are the first relocations under a European Union initiative for 1,600 unaccompanied children in which ten Member States have pledged to participate.