Two little brothers had to be transferred to Athens, from an accommodation facility in Thessaloniki, to travel to their final destination in the Netherlands, where their mother was waiting for them for family reunification.

The two little boys, 3 and 4 years of age, had to leave their father. “At first, the children were a little confused to see METAdrasi’s escorts, two strangers to them, but they followed us willingly” says the member of the escorting team; and she continues: “I will never forget, arriving at the airport, how they stared with their eyes wide open, full of curiosity, at the planes and the people coming and going. In fact, the youngest managed to become the mascot of the journey and attract the smiles of the people, since he walked all the time with his hand in his pocket!”

On the flight to Athens they got a little restless and tried to take their belt off in order to look from the window. But playing and painting, quickly made them forget themselves and time flew by.

Arriving in Athens, they were transferred for a longer flight, this time to the Netherlands. At last! In the thought that in a few hours they would be in their mother’s warm embrace, we were filled with relief. We wish them from the bottom of our hearts to grow up and manage to forget all the traumatic experiences they lived at this tender age! We also think about how lucky they are to have travelled to their mother, while thousands of children are left behind waiting for many months to be reunified with their families in other European countries.

The same evening we were informed that they had reached their final destination and that everything had gone smoothly.

P.S. We even changed diaper during this escorting mission!

Despite the long and complicated co-ordination procedures for the organization of this escorting mission, it is one of the simplest that METAdrasi has undertaken to date.

In the ten years of the activity “Escorting Missions for unaccompanied children” METAdrasi has carried out 6,200 missions for the safe transfer of 17,550 unaccompanied minors.