Defense Ministry to renovate empty building to host child migrants

Several unused buildings in Attica and Magnesia, central Greece, are to be transformed into reception centers for unaccompanied minors who have applied for asylum in Greece.

All the properties belong to the general secretariat for social solidarity of the Labor Ministry.

Their renovation is to be undertaken by the Defense Ministry in accordance with a joint ministerial decision signed in December.

There are currently some 3,300 unaccompanied minors in Greece. Of those only 1,104 are living in venues deemed appropriate for minors.

The remainder are in conditions considered dangerous by human rights groups, in the overcrowded migrant reception centers and police precincts of the eastern Aegean islands. A total of 74 were said to be in police precincts last month.