Greece charges French cleric with child refugees' sexual abuse

                                                                                                    (C)Reuters

Greek police say they have arrested a French cleric suspected of sexually abusing unaccompanied refugee children he had sheltered in his house in Thessaloniki, Greece's second-biggest city. The 52-year-old man, who belongs to the Franciscan Church of France, allegedly molested four homeless Pakistani boys, aged 14 to 18. The children, who had been sleeping rough around Thessaloniki's main railway station, told police officials that they accepted to stay at the man's home in January after he had offered to provide them with food and housing.
"When questioned, the children said they suffered repeated and persistent sexual abuse by the man," a police spokeswoman told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.
"They say that he took advantage of the fact that they were homeless and without food to sexually abuse them."
The alleged abuse came to light after the boys fled the man's house and one of them found refuge in a Thessaloniki centre for vulnerable migrants. There, he revealed the abuse to the centre's staff, who contacted police. Following a search on Tuesday at the man's house in the Toumba area of the northern city, police seized six hard drives and one USB stick, as well as dozens of tablets that fall under the Greek law on addictive substances.
Police on Wednesday said that the French cleric, who has been living in Greece for 12 years, has been charged with sexual abuse and possession and use of drugs. Three of the boys are currently staying in centres run by NGOs, while one is living at the Diabata refugee camp, according to police.
More than 62,000 refugees and migrants are currently stranded in Greece owing to a wave of European border closures and a controversial deal between the EU and Turkey in March 2016.  When the borders closed last year, more than 2,500 children, many of whom had not been registered as unaccompanied, were trapped in Greece, according to Lora Pappa, the head of METAdrasi, a charity
For these children, alone in a foreign country without a parent or an adult responsible for their care, sexual abuse is just one of the many dangers they face.
"These are children who are entirely unprotected. They sleep rough, lack access to education and are exposed to sexual abuse, human trafficking and black labour," Cosse said.
"Greece needs to revise its entire system and services to protect unaccompanied migrant and asylum seeking children."

Source: Aljazeera