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Resolution 2295 (2019)
Stop violence against, and exploitation of, migrant children
1. Amongst the migrants arriving in
Europe since 2015, many are children, and many of them are unaccompanied.
Children migrate to escape violence, armed conflict, persecution,
the ravages of climate change and natural disasters, and poverty.
Many young migrants set out to find opportunities for work or education.
In other cases, children leave home to avoid the threats of forced
marriage, female genital mutilation or gender-based violence (in
the case of girls) or forced military conscription (in the case
of boys).
2. The Parliamentary Assembly is very concerned about the serious
threats that migrant children face on their way to Europe, and important
gaps in policies and procedures, which limit the legal opportunities
for migration in Europe and put these children at risk of falling
into the hands of smugglers and traffickers. After arriving in Europe,
migrant children can also be subject to abuse in detention centres
or transit zones, sexual assault and violence, or be forced to live
on the streets in order to avoid deportation, especially if they
entered a European country illegally. They are also at risk of being
sexually exploited by criminal gangs engaging in human trafficking,
or of being exploited as undocumented workers. They also often face
discrimination and xenophobia in host countries.
3. The Assembly recalls its Recommendation 2117 (2017) and Resolution 2195 (2017) on
child-friendly age assessment for unaccompanied migrant children, Resolution 2136 (2016) on
harmonising the protection of unaccompanied minors in Europe, Resolution 2128 (2016) on
violence against migrants and Resolution 2174
(2017) on the human rights implications of the European
response to transit migration across the Mediterranean, which raised
specific issues related to the violation of the rights of migrant
children. It regrets that a number of European signatories to the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child continue to violate
their obligations by not providing adequate protection to migrant
children and not safeguarding their rights.
4. The member States of the Council of Europe must abide by the
principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which includes
prioritising the child’s best interests and ensuring that a best
interests determination procedure is legislated and implemented
for each migrant child.
5. The Assembly underlines that local and regional authorities
bear a major responsibility in providing necessary protection to
migrant children at places of arrival and ensuring access to their
rights and child-friendly procedures, as highlighted in Resolution 428 (2018) “Unaccompanied
refugee children: the role and responsibilities of local and regional
authorities” of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of
the Council of Europe.
6. The Assembly reiterates its position condemning violent practices
such as detaining migrant children and using invasive methods in
age-assessment procedures, which may have devastating effects on
the child’s physical, emotional and psychological development. It
welcomes the activities of the Parliamentary Campaign to End Immigration
Detention of Children in promoting alternatives to immigration detention
and encouraging a holistic approach to age assessment.
7. The Assembly is convinced that there is a need for a common
strategy to be adopted by the governments of the member States of
the Council of Europe on how to combat violence against migrant children
in all its forms and to ensure the broad and comprehensive protection
of their human rights. Such a strategy should include proposals
on how to ensure safe and legal entry for migrant children from
other States to limit the risk of trafficking and abuse.
8. The Assembly urges the Council of Europe member States to
prevent all cases of violence against migrant children by:
8.1. as regards legislative measures:
8.1.1. creating channels for safe, legal and regular migration,
such as flexible, prompt and effective family reunification procedures,
increasing the quota for migrants’ resettlement and the granting
of humanitarian visas, thereby strengthening safeguards for children
and their family members;
8.1.2. ensuring the compliance of national legislation with international
standards for the protection of migrant children, in particular
prohibiting their detention and ensuring the best interests of children
and their right to participate in decisions affecting them;
8.1.3. supporting the development of alternatives to the detention
of migrant children – such as foster care and supervised independent
living with reporting obligations – and the setting out of a clear
road map to end the practice of detention of children in a migration
context;
8.1.4. providing legal safeguards for migrant children regarding
their access to asylum procedures and guarantees that children are
provided with child-friendly and age-appropriate information about
asylum possibilities and other rights;
8.1.5. ensuring that national legislation provides protection
for migrant children from all forms of exploitation and provides
child victims of exploitation or violence with the status of victims
of crime;
8.1.6. ensuring that national legislation prohibits invasive
age-assessment practices;
8.1.7. ensuring that mechanisms are introduced allowing migrant
children to denounce violence committed against them;
8.1.8. ensuring that national legislation incorporates the principle
of the child’s best interests and that a best interests determination
procedure is legislated and implemented for each migrant child;
8.1.9. for parliaments of member States which have not yet done
so, signing and ratifying the International Convention on the Protection
of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families,
the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in
Human Beings (CETS No. 197) and the Convention on the Protection
of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS No. 201,
“Lanzarote Convention”);
8.2. as regards policy implementation:
8.2.1. refraining
from pushback practices in particular in relation to migrant children;
8.2.2. allocating necessary resources in the national budgets
to the protection of migrant children and the provision of child-friendly
services, including the training, education and capacity building
of child-protection professionals;
8.2.3. incorporating gender awareness in national responses to
asylum-seeking children;
8.2.4. providing special training for law-enforcement and immigration
officers, and border guards on international humanitarian law and
the main international standards on the treatment of migrant children;
8.2.5. involving non-governmental organisations working with
migrant children in governmental programmes aimed at the prevention
of violence against them;
8.2.6. putting in place specific policies to achieve full inclusion
of migrant children in the host country’s society, and to prevent
any form of discrimination or marginalisation that could result
in violence and abuse;
8.2.7. promoting joint projects between national law-enforcement
authorities, Interpol and Europol on the identification of organised
crime and human trafficking networks involved in the exploitation
and abuse of migrant children;
8.2.8. adopting proactive and inclusive strategies towards migrant
children who have been victims of violence and abuse, addressing
their mental and physical health issues;
8.2.9. creating asylum units specialised in assisting migrant
children and providing child-friendly information in the child’s
native language;
8.2.10. training local child-protection networks in identifying
and following migrant children at risk of being exposed to violence
and exploitation;
8.3. as regards public opinion, strengthening support for better
protection of migrant children against violence through public debate,
awareness-raising campaigns and education on human rights-based perspectives
on migration.
9. The Assembly invites the Council of Europe, in co-operation
with the European Union and Europol, to develop a unified registration
system of unaccompanied migrant children entering Europe, with the
aim of safeguarding their rights and duties.
10. The Assembly urges the European Parliament to review the European
Union’s targeted support and outsourcing of migration management
to third countries, from the perspective of the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child, with a view to protecting migrant children
from inhuman and degrading treatment, violence and exploitation.