At least 4,000 children are abused each year in Greece, with over 100 dying and more than 100 left with severe disabilities, according to the Institute of Child Health.
The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA) similarly reports that 1 in 10 children under the age of 3 admitted to hospitals are victims of abuse, while 1 in 4 fractures in children under 3 are also caused by abuse.
These figures represent only a small portion of the issue, as thousands of cases go unreported, and many children fall victim to sexual exploitation.
In total, it is estimated that new cases of child abuse in Greece exceed 20,000 each year.
At least 4 million children worldwide are subjected to forced labor and sexual exploitation, according to the United Nations.
“Thousands of children on the streets of Athens and other cities are victims of sexual exploitation,” says Sofia Karagiannopoulou, pediatrician, deputy director of the National Health System (NHS), and president of the Hellenic Society for Social Pediatrics of Northern Greece (EEKPE).
She emphasizes that pediatricians should be particularly alert when a child comes from a family with members who use alcohol or other substances or where punishment is still used as a method of discipline.
Experts note that indicators of child abuse often include injuries in infants under six months unrelated to childbirth, cases where the explanation of events is unclear, or instances where the child’s developmental stage is inconsistent with the reported incident.
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