Traveling to Uncertainty : Unaccompanied minors, humanitarianism and “bare life” in the aftermath of the Greek refugee crisis

Abstract: Abstract In the last years the refugee inflows towards Europe was striking, particularly in 2015 approximately 1 million refugees crossed the European borders, among the refugee population there were many children, amid those children there were also a special category; the unaccompanied children. The topic of this work is based on the highlighted issue of the unaccompanied minors in Greece. I present the context and the humanitarian response of the Greek refugee crisis including the humanitarian action which aimed to cover the unaccompanied minors needs. Moreover, I tried to identify the figure of the unaccompanied minor in Greece after 2015 and I examine the humanitarian response through the humanitarian governance concept and the Agambenian “bare life” theory. I conclude that humanitarianism as it is structured reduces the unaccompanied minors in “bare life” while the “bios” the political life is excluded. Key words: unaccompanied minor, Greece, humanitarian action, bare life, humanitarian governance, humanitarianism