I am very happy, so much safe and peace and play, there is no bombings.
Bana Alabed, Syrian girl tweeting during the siege of Aleppo
Migration in the XXI century
Migration is an ancient and wide phenomenon which has accelerated in speed and scale in recent times. It is estimated that children represent around a quarter of all migrants worldwide. In 2016, more than 100,000 undocumented child migrants entered Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and Spain, while Germany alone received over 260,000 asylum applications from children.1 Children move within the European continent or arrive from non-European states on their own, often having become separated from family members during the journey. The reasons are diverse: some children escape war, conflict, violence or natural disasters; others travel to be reunited with their family, to study or to achieve economic objectives. Many of these children suffer violations of their rights on the way to and upon reaching Europe.
According to Europol, at least 10,000 migrant children went missing after arriving to Europe in 2015, with many feared of having been exploited and abused for sexual or labour purposes. Children on the move, especially without the protection of their families, are extremely vulnerable.
Who are the migrant children?
‘Migrant children’ is an umbrella term referring to children who move away from their place of usual residence or born to such parents who moved away, within the country or across borders, temporarily or permanently, with or without their parents or relatives, for a variety of reasons.
Refugee children: children who were granted international protection, alone or with their parents, based on the 1951 “Geneva Convention”, in another country because of a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinions.
Asylum-seeker children: children who seek safety from persecution or serious harm in a country other than their own and await a decision on their application for refugee status.
Unaccompanied or separated children: unaccompanied children who have been separated from both parents and other relatives and are not being cared for by an adult who is responsible for doing so, or separated children who have been separated from both parents or other primary caregivers, but not necessarily from other relatives.
Internally-displaced children (IDPs): children who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, alone or with their families because of an armed conflict, situations of generalised violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognised state border.
Irregular migrant children: children or children to parents who arrived regularly into a country but become irregular due to administrative overstay, or, alternatively, those who arrived irregularly into a country (including smuggling and human trafficking).
Stateless children: children who are not considered a national by any state thus do not enjoy the diplomatic protection of a state and the right to return.
There are numerous other categories of migrant children: for example, European citizens, including children, are free to move within the European Union and enjoy the same rights as the citizens of the state they are residing in. All these children are migrants, unless there is a specific context (e.g. children fleeing wars); the term ‘migrant children’ can be used without any particular concerns.
The UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 “Refugee Convention”) and its Protocol are key legal documents as they set out the rights of refugees and the responsibilities of states that provide asylum. In 2018, UN member states adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees, to recognise both the dignity, equal and inalienable rights of everyone, as well as the right to freedom of movement and the right to seek asylum and safeguard of human rights of non-citizens in other countries.
Access to rights and child-friendly procedures
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) applies to all children within the jurisdiction of a member state without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or their parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status, including migration status. Refugee and migrant children should be treated first and foremost as children, they should enjoy all the rights guaranteed to them without discrimination, and their best interests should be the primary consider ation in all actions and decisions affecting them.
Lack of accurate and reliable information makes refugee and migrant children unable to access their rights and understand the procedures affecting them. Children experience additional stress and anxiety and it makes them even more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, especially if they are unaccompanied or separated from their families. They should receive information in a child-friendly manner, which means information is adapted to the child’s age, maturity, language, gender and culture.
Children should be informed that they have the right:
to a life free from violence: children should be protected from all forms of violence; if they fall victim to human trafficking, sexual or labour exploitation, they should be provided with victim assistance and services; furthermore, the state should take all the necessary steps to investigate the case and prosecute the offenders.
to seek asylum: unaccompanied or separated children are routinely denied entry at borders or detained without the opportunity to seek asylum. Children fleeing persecution or serious harm in their own country, as any adult, have the right to ask for international protection. Asylum-seeker and refugee children should receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance in the enjoyment of their rights.
to non-refoulement: no child should be returned to a country where there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk of irreparable harm to the child, such as torture, underage recruitment or participation in hostilities.
to family reunification: children should be assisted in tracing their parents or other members of their family, and in obtaining information about the reunification procedure. In case no parents or other members of the family can be found, the child shall be accorded the same protection as any other child permanently or temporarily deprived of his or her family environment in the country.
to liberty: children should not be detained for reasons related to their, or their parents’ or guardians’ migration status, for example identification, assessment of their age, screening of their health or determination of their legal status. Detention has severe short- and long-term effects on children’s physical and mental health. Children should not be held in detention even with their parents; in such a case, alternative measures should be put in place for the whole family.
to an effective remedy against the unlawful interference with their rights: children must be informed about the right to an effective remedy that is independent of any such right belonging to any accompanying adult.
Refugee and migrant children can get access to child-friendly support and services based on their age. Any person who claims to be a child should be treated as such until proven otherwise and never be detained with unrelated adults or treated as an adult in any other way. In most countries, age-assessment procedures are based on medical examinations aiming solely at determining the person’s biological age, without taking into account psychological, cognitive or behavioural factors. These procedures should be conducted in a language the child understands and in a child-friendly manner: the children’s best interests and needs should be the primary consideration, their rights and dignity should be respected, and they should be given the opportunity to exercise their right to be heard and influence any decision to be taken.
1 UNHCR, UNICEF, and IOM, Refugee and Migrant Children – Including Unaccompanied and Separated Children- in Europe, Overview of Trends in 2016, April 2017
