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Resolution 2220 (2018)
Integration, empowerment and protection of migrant children through compulsory education
1. The right to education and States’
duty to provide it are enshrined in Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, Article 13 of the 1966 United Nations Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the 1989 United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 17.2 of the 1996
European Social Charter (revised) (ETS No. 163).
2. Despite this range of international legal provisions framing
European countries’ obligation to provide accessible, acceptable
and adaptable education to all children, in 2016 only 61% of refugee
children had access to primary education, compared with 91% among
non-refugees worldwide. An average of 23% of refugee adolescents
attended lower secondary school, compared to 84% of non-refugee
adolescents; and only 1% of refugees were attending university,
compared to 36% of young people worldwide. Out of 6.4 million primary
and secondary school-age refugees around the world, an estimated
3.5 million had no school to attend.
3. The Parliamentary Assembly is extremely concerned about Council
of Europe member States’ failure to assume their obligations with
respect to education for migrant and especially refugee children,
and stresses the urgent need to remedy the situation by giving priority
to providing inclusive and effective educational programmes, as
well as the infrastructure and teaching resources to support them.
It calls on member States to respect their international commitments,
in particular the obligation to provide accessible and free primary and
secondary education to all migrant children within their territory,
whatever their origins, gender and background. In the light of the
obligations under Article 17.2 of the European Social Charter (revised),
the Assembly urges Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany,
Iceland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Poland, San Marino, Spain and the United
Kingdom to ratify this instrument.
4. In conflict-affected regions, schools must be recognised as
sanctuaries that are not to be used by military or police forces.
In countries not directly touched by war or tensions, domestic legislation
should prohibit the presence or entry of police or armed forces
inside classrooms in any normal circumstances (for purposes of expulsion,
for instance). Their presence is a source of trauma not only for
the children concerned, but also for children who witness violations
of rights, inhuman treatment and intimidation. In this regard, the
Assembly calls on those member States which have not yet done so
to sign the Safe Schools Declaration adopted at the May 2015 Oslo
International Conference on Safe Schools.
5. Most countries provide the same services to migrant children,
once integrated into mainstream classes, as to others. The Assembly
welcomes this state of affairs and urges States to extend equal
treatment to all the different situations in which migrant and refugee
children find themselves, from reception to integration and during
relocation and resettlement, in order to ensure continuity in education,
individual well-being and social stability in the host country,
and to favour future integration. Children destined to return to
their countries of origin will also suffer from gaps in their education
once home.
6. The problems encountered by migrant and refugee families and
unaccompanied children concern above all the precariousness and
unpredictability of situations, waiting periods for access to education,
language barriers, geographical accessibility, insufficient information
and guidance for families, inadequate or inexistent financial assistance
for asylum applicants to cover educational expenses, and the treatment
and integration of traumatised children. The Assembly therefore
calls on member States to:
6.1. provide
primary and secondary education that is accessible to all migrant
children and free of charge;
6.2. set national objectives for the school attendance of migrant
and refugee children;
6.3. integrate education for migrant and refugee children and
specialised teacher training into the budget of the ministry of
education rather than into that of humanitarian and development
assistance;
6.4. not differentiate between children according to their
asylum status for educational purposes;
6.5. encourage all children to attend secondary school until
the age of 18, regardless of whether possible school-leaving ages
are lower in either the host country or the country of origin;
6.6. provide full and comprehensible information to parents
about the educational possibilities for their school-age children
and their own responsibilities to allow their children to study;
6.7. put in place effective firewalls between the information
systems of schools and immigration authorities to protect data on
the status of migrants in irregular situations, in order to avoid
misuse of the data to deny or complicate access to education for
migrant children;
6.8. inform and give access, encouragement, learning incentives
and assistance to unaccompanied minors to attend classes;
6.9. give access wherever possible to mainstream education
in local classes and provide adequate transport and accompaniment
to children living in centres and camps;
6.10. make sure, when education in mixed local classes is not
possible, that the schooling provided follows recognised methods
and curricula which can be used to establish levels of education
later;
6.11. ensure that psycho-social assistance is provided in order
to diagnose and address cases of trauma, as well as specific teacher
training to recognise early signs of distress linked to refugee children’s
experiences;
6.12. address the infrastructural challenges in terms of educational
facilities, which is one of the main obstacles to attaining high
enrolment rates of refugee and migrant children.
7. Migrant and refugee children should be given the opportunity
to attend pre-school structures in countries where these exist.
Where pre-schools are not free of charge, help should be given to
enable these children to attend. The Assembly appreciates the organisation
of “welcoming classes” in primary education and international classes
in secondary education; these should be provided on regular school
premises rather than in dedicated centres and should not be used
as a way to segregate migrant children (the length of classes should
not, therefore, exceed the point where children are ready to join
normal classes).
8. Language learning is an important part of integration and
a precondition for the advancement of other learning abilities.
Additional language courses should be made available free of charge
to children (and parents) where needed. Where possible, access to
mother-tongue educational resources should be made available. The
Assembly also calls on all Council of Europe member States to encourage,
financially and structurally, further and higher education for migrants,
making use of tools such as the Council of Europe Language Support
Toolkit for Adult Refugees and supporting projects such as the Council
of Europe’s European Qualifications Passport for Refugees piloted
by Greece in 2017.
9. Gender-sensitive education should be in place and teachers
trained in how to manage culturally sensitive situations linked
to gender, to recognise gender-specific issues and to reject and
avoid propagating stereotypes. These skills should be taught as
a general rule, but the Assembly points out that they are all the more
important when the cultures, habits and beliefs of migrants and
refugees differ from those of the majority in the host country.
Accepting difference and inciting curiosity about other cultures
and indeed one’s own culture and history begins in the classroom.
10. The Assembly therefore strongly urges member States to work
actively towards fulfilment of the objectives set out above. Non-respect
of the legal obligations involved in the implementation of these
concrete measures constitutes a flagrant violation of children’s
rights. Education is a powerful tool for the integration of migrants
and refugees and for the empowerment of young people who have been
destabilised by situations for which they are not responsible.