National Emergency Response Mechanism (NERM) for Unaccompanied Minors in Precarious living conditions

The National Emergency Response Mechanism (NERM) was designed by the Special Secretariat for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors - SSPUAM (hereafter with PD 77/2023 General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons and Institutional Protection - SGVP) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2020, and was put into implementation in 2021 to rapidly identify unaccompanied children who are homeless or living in insecure conditions and transfer them to safe accommodation in the country.

The National Emergency Response Mechanism includes a telephone hotline that assists for identifying and tracing children in need (15107 and 00306942773030 via WhatsApp or Viber), available in six languages (Arabic, Farsi, Dari, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali and others, based on availability) and operates:

Monday - Friday 08:00 - 22:00

Saturday 11:00 - 19:00

The hotline does not operate on national holidays and public holidays.

The hotline provides guidance to children, citizens, local and public authorities on steps and actions to be taken from the point of identification of an unaccompanied child until his/her timely inclusion in emergency accommodation.

Children will be also provided with material and psychosocial support, interpretation, safe accompaniment when outside the accommodation, including representation during registration procedures with authorities. Additionally, they will have access to the information desks established in Athens and Thessaloniki which serve as points of reference for UAMs in precarious conditions, providing support and guidance with regards to the National Mechanism. Unaccompanied children in the emergency accommodation receive specialized services and further support until they are transferred to long-term accommodation, based on a formal assessment of the child’s needs, background and options available in Greece.