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Resolution 2136 (2016)
Harmonising the protection of unaccompanied minors in Europe
1. Almost 90 000 unaccompanied minors
applied for asylum in European Union countries in 2015, an increase
over 2014. In 2016 there are no signs of a reversal of this 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 difficulties of treating and
assisting 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
recent phases of the crisis, especially with 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 2016, 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) on
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 the
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 being systematically
guaranteed for 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, and 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 recommendations 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 on Determining
the Best Interests of the Child of the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other guidelines designed to
serve as models for the treatment of unaccompanied migrant minors,
8. The Assembly urges member States to work at the national and
regional levels and, through international co-operation, to improve
the protection of unaccompanied migrant minors and to prevent their 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, involving Europol and Frontex
in investigations against criminal groups that might harm and exploit
unaccompanied children; and by 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 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 designation 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 of supervising and co-ordinating their asylum
procedures involving various public authorities and services and
civil society organisations;
8.2.3. ensuring that unaccompanied migrant minors are treated
first and foremost as children immediately on arrival in Europe,
that they are allocated dedicated accommodation and given protection
against all forms of violence and abuse (including sexual abuse
and exploitation and human trafficking), that they are not held
in immigration detention under any circumstances, as promoted by
the Parliamentary Campaign to End Immigration Detention of Children,
and that they have 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 interpreters
and counsellers for children on arrival to avoid confusion, re-traumatisation
and misunderstandings from the outset, which, added to substandard
reception conditions, push children 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 at 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 of the procedure, 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 reviewing 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.