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Resolution 2136 (2016) Provisional version
Harmonising the protection of unaccompanied minors in Europe
1. Almost 90 000
unaccompanied minors applied for asylum in European Union countries
in 2015 and in 2016 there are no signs of a reversal of the trend,
as the total number of minors applying for asylum in the month of
June 2016 alone stood at 30 000. The present migration and refugee
crisis in Europe has exacerbated the challenges of how to treat
and assist these children on the move, and generated new problems
with the realisation that large numbers of children are going missing
at different stages of their journey, especially directly after
arrival at reception centres.
2. New challenges to child protection have also emerged during
the recent phases of the crisis, especially in the context of the
partial or total closure of routes across Europe, followed by the
first effects of the European Union–Turkey agreement of 18 March
2016. The international public was made aware of a major concern
when the European Union law-enforcement agency Europol announced
in January 2016 that 10 000 migrant minors were missing in Europe,
and there is reason to believe that actual figures were much higher.
In May this year, the total number for Germany alone rose to about
9 000, according to the German Federal Criminal Police.
3. The Parliamentary Assembly has voiced its concern about the
situation of unaccompanied migrant minors in Europe on several occasions
and made proposals for solutions, in particular in its Recommendation 1969 (2011) and Resolution
1810 (2011) “Unaccompanied children in Europe: issues of
arrival, stay and return”, which proposes 15 common principles for
handling unaccompanied migrant children, with particular focus on
the need to treat unaccompanied children first and foremost as children,
not as migrants. The Assembly regrets that, in the majority of member
States, there is no legal definition of “missing children” as a separate
category in national legislation. The Assembly also regrets the
fact that the absence of a legally binding definition of missing
children has had a major negative impact on investigations, waiting
times and levels of alarm. The Assembly deeply regrets that the
European Union has discontinued the funding of the hotline (116
000) for missing children, established in almost all EU member States,
even though 54% of the staff were volunteers. Unfortunately, the
number of calls has also decreased dramatically.
4. Related issues, such as the determination of children’s age
and ending immigration detention of children were taken up in Resolution 1996 (2014) “Migrant children: what rights at 18?” and in Recommendation 2056 (2014) on alternatives to immigration detention of children.
These texts were the basis for the launching of the ongoing Parliamentary
Campaign to End Immigration Detention of Children.
5. The Assembly recalls that the general principle of respect
for migrant minors’ rights first and foremost as children implies
that they should benefit from special protection, including social
and health care which ensure their physical and psychological integrity
and development, sufficient and child-friendly information, education and
empowerment. On observation of the situation in member States, it
is clear that these conditions are far from systematically afforded
to unaccompanied migrant minors.
6. The Assembly refers to the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child, specifically Article 3 on the best interests
of the child, Articles 19 and 20 on special protection and assistance
from the State for unaccompanied and separated children, Article
22 on the rights of children seeking refugee status and General Comment
No. 6 (2005) on the treatment of unaccompanied and separated children
outside their country of origin, to the New York Declaration for
Refugees and Migrants adopted by the United Nations General Assembly
on 19 September 2016, as well as to the European Convention on the
Exercise of Children’s Rights (ETS No. 160), the Council of Europe
Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (CETS No. 197)
and the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children
against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS No. 201).
7. The Assembly reiterates the principles set out in the European
Commission Principles on integrated child protection systems, the
Seven Point Plan for Refugee and Migrant Children of the United
Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the Guidelines of the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
on Determining the Best Interests of the Child and other guidelines
designed to serve as models for the treatment of unaccompanied migrant
minors,
8. The Assembly urges member States to work on a national and
regional level and through international co-operation to improve
the protection of unaccompanied migrant minors and to avoid them
going missing, in particular by:
8.1. in
the context of international co-operation, including with countries
of origin:
8.1.1. ensuring that national
police forces co-operate to constitute reliable, comprehensive and regularly
updated databases on unaccompanied children who go missing, involve
Europol and Frontex in investigations against criminal groups that
might harm and exploit unaccompanied children, as well as fully
co-operating in efforts to track missing children and to support
the further development of the Schengen Information System (SIS);
8.1.2. assuring security protection of children from trafficking
and criminal activities to which they are particularly vulnerable
and stepping up co-operation with the countries of origin and transit
in this area;
8.1.3. harmonising the rules concerning the establishment of
guardians and legal representatives and a common definition of their
mandate and role;
8.1.4. upholding the right to family reunion in the case of separated
migrant minors, in accordance with each child’s right to live with
their parents, as enshrined in Article 22 of the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child;
8.1.5. recalling that a rights-based approach to the protection
of children also involves reacting to violations;
8.2. in the context of national and regional policies and action:
8.2.1. ensuring that all unaccompanied
migrant children are adequately registered upon arrival in Europe,
and that registration data are exchanged between the various authorities
involved in their reception and care;
8.2.2. assigning responsibilities to institutions specifically
in charge of implementing programmes for the protection of unaccompanied
migrant minors and for supervising and co-ordinating their asylum
procedures involving various public authorities and services as
well as civil society organisations;
8.2.3. ensuring that unaccompanied migrant minors are treated
first and foremost as children immediately on arrival in Europe,
and that they are allocated dedicated accommodation, protection
against any form of violence and abuse (including sexual abuse and
exploitation and human trafficking), avoidance of immigration detention
in any situation, as promoted by the Parliamentary Campaign to end
immigration detention of children, access to health care and sanitary
conditions which are conducive to their rapid recovery from physical
and psychological hardship;
8.2.4. providing child-friendly information and trained interpretation
and counselling for children on arrival to avoid confusion, re-traumatisation
and misunderstandings at the outset, which, added to substandard
reception conditions, are a push factor in children’s decisions
to abscond from reception centres;
8.2.5. in cases where a child’s age cannot be established by
identity documents and only where there is doubt as to the individual’s
status as a minor, carrying out early and non-intrusive age assessment
in full respect for the dignity and integrity of children. The procedure
should be multidisciplinary and carried out by independent professionals,
familiar with their ethnic, cultural and developmental characteristics.
Similar principles should apply when there is a dispute over the
country of origin;
8.2.6. improving or introducing accelerated asylum application
procedures for unaccompanied minors, including the early designation
of sufficiently trained guardians and legal representatives who
can assist children and who are each allocated a small number of
migrant children;
8.2.7. ensuring that children have access to education on registration
and throughout waiting periods, then facilitating their entry into
mainstream education systems once the procedures for asylum or other
forms of regularisation are engaged;
8.2.8. allocating sufficient funding to the structures put in
place for care and protection of unaccompanied migrant minors, in
particular associations and other civil society bodies, but also ensuring
that domestic legislation and regulations are adapted to provide
specific administrative procedures for lone child migrants;
8.2.9. to prevent unaccompanied migrant children from going missing,
ensuring that responsibilities are transferred seamlessly during
the different stages from reception to integration of migrant minors,
in order to minimise the risk of unaccompanied minors “slipping through
the gaps” in protection and absconding;
8.2.10. identifying and implementing durable solutions for unaccompanied
children, based on a thorough assessment of the best interests of
the child, on her or his right to safety, protection and development
and on the definition of a life project with each child, and establishing
monitoring procedures on compliance with the best interests of the
child in case of return of the children;
8.2.11. in all cases, ensuring that unaccompanied or separated
migrant minors are never refused entry into a country, in accordance
with the non-refoulement obligations deriving from international
human rights, humanitarian and refugee law.
9. The Assembly also calls on the European Union to continue
taking into account the need for special protection for unaccompanied
migrant minors when implementing the review of the Dublin III Regulation,
in particular by introducing a provision on asylum applications
for unaccompanied minors in the country where they are located,
to avoid adding unnecessary transfers to their already traumatising
journeys.