This fact sheet provides an overview of the numbers of children in institutional care in Greece. There is no official database holding data on children in alternative care within Greece. According to the first nationwide mapping study carried out in 2014 by the campaign’s National Coordinator in Greece, there were 2,825 children and adults living in 85 institutions for children throughout Greece. Worryingly, some of these institutions house children with disabilities as well as adults, sometimes keeping them in cages and tied to their beds. The medical model of caring for those with disabilities is still maintained in Greece and institutional culture is not questioned. Lack of know-how, private donors supporting private institutional care and the persistence of an institutional culture are the main challenges preventing the implementation of DI reforms in Greece. In August 2016, there were 27,500 refugee and migrant children stranded in Greece and 3,779 unaccompanied children had been referred for accommodation since the beginning of 2016. According to UNICEF only one third of the unaccompanied children was staying in formal shelters.
