It is not easy to have some figures about this phenomenon, but without a doubt it is increasing in the whole of Europe. Minors’ asylum questions in 22 Member States (without taking into account The Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Poland and Romania) were almost 11,000 in 2009, compared with 9,600 in 2008.
The European Commission has adopted an action plan aiming to improve the protection of unaccompanied minors, including a better regulation on legal guardianship and representation. The Commission then wishes to shorten the asylum procedure and, in case of refusal, provide the repatriation with all the required guarantees. Indeed, according to a Commission spokesperson, “An assisted return to the origin country may occur if it is required for the interest of minors themselves”. At this stage, it must be noted that the family tracing seems to occur in only a few cases, also because more often the minors prefer not to come back to their home country for economic an social reasons.
The Commission therefore, urges an action plan, as foreseen in the Stockholm Programme, to strengthen the measures to assure the care of asylum-seeking children in accordance to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Due to the complexity and the growing of the phenomenon, Member States are to face new challenges such as providing to the minors all that they need to integrate in the society.
Such measures would constitute common standards across the EU with regards to reception and provision of assistance to unaccompanied minors from entry onward. Due to the complexity and the growing of the phenomenon, Member States are to face new challenges such as providing to the minors all that they need to integrate in the society. For example, suitable accommodations and health cares at the first stage and then an essential education to be able to deepen in the new environment. With this regard, a lack of sufficient knowledge of the Member State language makes it difficult for a child to have a comfortable life.
Likewise, the Commission calls on Member States to solve the actual problems regarding the assessment of the age of the unaccompanied children, which somewhat threatens the children’s rights.
Commenting on the last report released by the European Agency for Fundamental Rights, the Director Morten Kjaerum has stated: “It is essential to enhance cooperation between Member States, encourage exchange of information and good practices and reinforce existing protection instruments as soon as possible”.
In spite of a lot of efforts by Members States over the last years, there is still some scope to further improvements in protection and reception of such children. Unfortunately, some countries still turn to the initial detention during the age assessment procedure. In some cases the detention centres are similar to prisons where children’s human rights are not wholly respected.
The Commission action plan is to tackle these problems, allowing the EU to be in the first stages to receive thousands of unaccompanied minors who are coming from across our borders to pursue a better life.
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