ATHENS – Fourteen unaccompanied refugee children departed Athens on Thursday for relocation to Portugal.

There were 8 boys from Afghanistan, 4 from Pakistan, 1 from Bangladesh and 1 from Nigeria, and they were accompanied through procedures by Migration and Asylum Ministry Special Secretary for Unaccompanied Children Iraklis Moskof.

As part of 13 EU member states that have volunteered to relocate migrants from Greece, Portugal has accepted a total of 213 children and all 13 countries a total of 1,194.

A Migration Ministry announcement said “the successful program is a strong indicator of the effectiveness and technical know-how Greece has developed in implementing such initiatives.” The program for voluntary relocation of unaccompanied minors is a Greek initiative since April 2020 and is an example of European solidarity, it added.

Supporting the program are the European Commission, and EU members and other countries, while collaborating with it are global organizations like International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN High Commission for Refugees, European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) and Greece-based NGO METAdrasis.