Greece Orphanage Whistleblowers Reveal Sexual Abuse, Violence

Written complaints from three whistleblowers, who have not been identified, have led Greek authorities to investigate allegations that five boys in a state-funded orphanage performed sexual and violent acts in the presence of staff members.

While the institution was not named, media reports said that the boys were taken to a hospital in Athens for treatment and that an undisclosed number of staff – all said to be women – did not intervene during the incident.

Deputy Minister for Social Affairs Domna Michailidou, said she alerted the prosecutor's office, which began a probe, and only then were the workers suspended although she said the orphange board had known about the allegations since September 2021.

Michailidou told ANT1 TV that she had frozen state funding to the institution after receiving the whistleblowers’ letter, which she described as "a signed complaint from three people who are directly related to this institution, either as employees or board members.”

"They reported incidents of physical violence against children in a designated 'punishment room' inside the institution, as well as sexual relations between boys from 7 to 11 years old.”

The facility’s financial affairs are also being examined and a prosecutor's order has been issued to look into alleged unlawful adoptions, as the investigation widens. There are reports other workers will testify about the alleged abuse and the possible existence of video evidence.

The unnamed institution is a private facility which receives state funding. Children had been sent to the institution by prosecutors who found they were in unstable family conditions with their parents.

Michailidou told SKAI TV that, based on the complaint, women working in the orphanage were physically abusing children, that there was a storage room that was used as a space for punishment and that the children were given drugs that had passed their expiry date. She raised the possibility that the institution had attempted to a cover-up wrongdoing.

Describing her visit to the hospital in Athens where many of the children involved have been transferred, Michailidou said:

"I saw children you can tell are neglected. I saw a small child whose oral health was severely neglected, another child who had a discernable scar on his eye. The children are in a warm, childlike environment [at the hospital], one of them even told me that he does not want to go back and prefers to stay there."

The orphanage had previously refused to provide information on how many children were there, in contravention of official policy, but was not penalised for this.

Michailidou told Kathimerini that, “When we launched the online platform for fostering and adoption, we asked all child care facilities in the country to register the children they hosted, in order for them to join the system”.

“The specific facility refused to do so until the last moment. I had to call them on the phone and press them. They were the last in Greece to follow the instructions.”