14/12/2025
Via Haris Tortorelis In recent times, through discussions with foster parents as well as volunteers working in facilities for unaccompanied minors across Greece, I have been confronted with an issue that I can no longer ignore. An issue deeply dark in nature, concerning underage refugee girls accommodated in facilities for unaccompanied minors, run by NGOs, who became pregnant at ages where, under Greek law, consent is legally impossible. We are speaking about girls under the age of 16, some of whose children have been placed in foster care in Greece.
Girls who became pregnant while they were already under a protection regime. And yet, in several cases that I have documented, no criminal prosecution for r**e was ever initiated, nor was any institutional investigative procedure launched.
Even more alarming is the fact that some of these girls continue to remain under the influence of their abusers, with the full knowledge of the hosting facilities. The very same facilities that receive substantial funding both for the psychosocial support and empowerment of these minors, as well as for their legal representation and protection. Moreover, certain NGOs involved in the refugee sector appear to be playing this dirty role, while at the same time receiving awards for their services and contributions.
Within this context, practices of evading responsibility through arguments such as “this is acceptable in their culture,” “she arrived already pregnant from another country,” “the pregnancy predated her entry into the facility,” or “the incident occurred in another facility prior to her transfer” are absolutely unacceptable. Invoking cultural or religious traditions cannot and must not constitute grounds for abandoning the responsibility to protect minors. Gestational timelines are known and verifiable, and Greek law clearly stipulates that consent to sexual relations does not exist under the age of 16. Regardless of any pre-existing condition or cultural reference, the essence remains one and the same: from the moment an institution accepts an underage girl under its protection, it assumes full and indivisible responsibility for her defense, her legal protection, and the addressing of every traumatic event carried by her personal history. Protection is neither selective nor limited by time or geography. It is an institutional obligation.
When entities entrusted with the protection of minors fail not only to safeguard their physical and psychological integrity, but also to activate the mechanisms of justice in such clear-cut cases, we are speaking of systemic cover-up. And when this cover-up is accompanied by public awards and commendations, serious questions arise as to how we understand child protection and accountability in practice. Unfortunately, this is not the first time in our society that entities with grave failures toward children are elevated as “role models.”
This is not a personal matter. It is a matter of the rule of law. It is a matter of child protection. It is a matter of responsibility.
Should any public prosecutor wish to examine these cases, I am at their disposal to submit all specific information I possess, with absolute respect for the confidentiality that protects minors.
The truth must be told at some point. And someone must finally listen.
