The European Commission presented earlier this autumn, on 23 September, the New Pact for Migration and Asylum, a document long awaited by all parties involved in the management of migration processes in Europe, which also includes aspects of child protection in migration.
With this document, the Commission aims to “structure a framework that ensures a fair sharing of responsibility and solidarity between Member States and at the same time guarantees certainty for all individuals seeking international protection in Europe”.*

Two macro areas of action are therefore outlined:
The efficiency of the system of border control and verification procedures, which can speed up waiting times and guarantee respect for human rights, through an independent monitoring mechanism;
A distribution of the famous quotas of migrants among the Member States, organized however through three different options, which States have the freedom to choose. Each State would then have an allocated quota of migrants; however, it can decide whether to receive the migrants, sponsor the return, giving the necessary economic resources for such return to the country of first arrival, or support to third countries for the management outside the EU borders of migrants, or of those being returned.

With regard to the specific issue of the protection of minors and unaccompanied or separated migrant children, there are certainly aspects of attention:

  • widened the definition of family giving the possibility of reunification also between siblings;
  • the right to remain in a Member State where a diploma has been obtained is guaranteed,
  • more emphasis and attention is given to the respect of the principle of the best interest of the child,
  • access to education systems without discrimination,
  • as well as respect for the right of the child to be heard during the entry procedures, and
  • the commitment to implement alternatives to detention for children and their families.

However, the decision to exclude only UASC and children under the age of 12 from border procedures was of particular concern, thus reducing protection for all children aged 12 to 18 years. In fact, it should be remembered that border procedures very often provide for detention.
This rule, together with the rule providing for the possibility to detain children and UASC for national security reasons, contrasts with international and regional standards that consider such detention practices as a violation of children’s rights.**
Civil Society has reacted with a certain degree of critics to the document, underling the failure to overcome the Dublin mechanism and a structure that risks to not guaranteeing the respect of migrants’ rights. Nonetheless, also the political parties in the European Parliament, as well as the Member States have expressed their doubts about the proposal. On the one hand those who define it as still not very brave in imposing a principle of solidarity between states, on the other hand those who want at all costs to elude the management of migrants and do not like this new optional mechanism either.
The reactions once again shade the light on the different political positions Member States reiterate on the migration .topic. The hope is that European Institutions will start from this proposal and will try to find the right compromise among States without failing to protect migrants’ human rights.
Here you can download the fact-sheet with summary information on the new pact for migration and asylum, or the full text is available here.

 

* New Pact on Migration and Asylum factsheet European Commission
** https://picum.org/more-detention-fewer-safeguards-how-the-new-eu-pact-on-migration-and-asylum-creates-new-loopholes-to-ignore-human-rights-obligations/

 
Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash

UASC, unaccompanied or separated children are boys and girls who have arrived in Europe without parents or adults legally responsible for them.
The large migration flows in recent years have recorded a constant influx of minors, mainly teenage boys, between 14 and 17 years of age, in European countries.

In 2019 about 33,000 children reached the European borders, among them more than 5,000 were UASC.*
Between January and June 2019, 8,236 minors arrived in Greece, Spain, Italy and Bulgaria, including 2,794 (34%) Unaccompanied or Separated Foreign Minors.**

Unfortunately, there is quite often the risk that this children are not treated as such, but simply as migrants, without the adequate services and attention which could and should ensure their best interest and well being.
In the different European countries, many alternative forms of care have been experimented in these years, but there are still more opportunities for further enhancements that can be dicovered and promoted thanks to an exchange of information and the fostering of mutual knowledge among the key actors in different countries.

The EPIC project sets this as its main objective:

to create new opportunities for exchange and training to enrich not only the skills of individual operators, but the whole alternative care systems in the countries where the project takes place.

Moreover the project seeks to promote in particular foster care for UASC, which has proven to be an effective instrument to protect Unaccompanied migrant children and give them more opportunities for integration in the communities where they settle.

In this website it will be possible to deepen the theme of alternative care for UASC and discover the activities and good practices carried out by the partners of this project, located in different European countries: Italy, Spain, Czech Republic and Sweden (discover all the partners).
To stay up to date on the project, and on the initiatives that will be addressed both to professionals in the reception sector, but also to families and individuals supporting UASC, as well as all those who are interested, you can subscribe to the newsletter here.

 

*Data from European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

** Data from International Organization for Migration

 
Children in Migration
In 2019, over 140,000 migrants were apprehended after crossing the EU’s external land or sea borders in an unauthorised manner. Among them, about 33,000 claimed to be children, including over 5,000 who were unaccompanied.
Children in Migration 2019The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights has recently published the annual report 2019 on Children in Migration.
Since September 2015 FRA has collected data on this specific issue and this year’s report covers the main concerns identified in FRA’s Quarterly Bulletins on migration in selected EU Member States (precisely Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands).
The report contains relevant data as the numbers of children arrived in Europe and key findings on the main challenges concerning the fundamental rights of children in migration throughout the entire process from the entering in the EU to the risk of detention and return.
A paragraph is dedicated to guardianship systems for unaccompanied migrant children reaffirming once again that despite significant progress, important gaps remain to be filled.
In the document only four cases are mentioned as example (Croatia, Greece, Hungary and Malta) but the Guardianship system is widespread within many other European Countries and all of them share the need for improvement in order to guarantee a better care and better chances for Unaccompanied migrant children.
The report can be read and downloaded on the FRA’s website
logo fadv The project is coordinated by Fondazione l'Albero della Vita