Top court says legal to expel unvaccinated children from kindergartens

Greece’s top administrative court ruled on Thursday that it is legal to remove children who have not been vaccinated from nurseries and kindergartens, citing a constitutional obligation of the State to protect public health.

In its decision, the Council of State said that “it would be contrary to the principle of equality for a person to ask not to be vaccinated” because others around them are.

The case was brought before the court after the municipality of Eastern Macedonia expelled four children from an equal number of municipal kindergartens, after their parents refused to vaccinate them for common childhood illnesses.

The parents of one girl appealed to the court asking for the annulment of the municipal council’s decision announced on from January 14, claiming it is unconstitutional and contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

They claimed that their child was “punished” for not getting some of the vaccines and that was being treated differently by her classmates, “for no apparent reason.”

They also argued that the vaccination was “not necessary” since their child was healthy and “there was no pandemic” and the other children enrolled in the kindergarten have received the prescribed vaccines.

The court rejected all their claims as unfounded.