Strasbourg, 21/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - In its 5th report (October 2014-December 2015) published on Wednesday 16 March, the Group of Experts Against Trafficking of Human Beings (GRETA) called on all European governments to urgently implement specific protection for migrant and asylum seeker children and unaccompanied minors.
Europol figures published last month and highlighted in the report and communication from Thorbjorn Jagland, the secretary-general of the Council of Europe (COE), are indeed damning. According to these estimates at least 10,000 unaccompanied minors or children have been separated from their families since the beginning of the migration crisis. Many of them have fallen into the hands of the human traffickers even after they have been placed in reception centres.
Nicolas Le Coz, the president of GRETA, explained, “States' legal obligations of identification and protection are a bulwark against the trafficking and exploitation of human beings and a weapon against traffickers”. He also pointed out that these countries must fulfil their obligations efficiently.
In the majority of the 44 countries that are signatories to the COE Convention against human trafficking, the report published today “highlights widespread gaps in the identification and protection of victims of trafficking among asylum seekers, refugees and migrants”. The report also points out that this risk is aggravated by the lack of coordination between national and international levels.
GRETA experts are therefore urgently calling for a specific identification mechanism to be developed. This will involve estimates of the children's age, which should be part of a comprehensive approach that also includes an indicator regarding their psychological maturity. Practices of states such as Hungary and the Slovak Republic are also denounced because they only take into account x-rays and dental examinations.
Although the identification called for is essential, it will not be enough and it is crucial that the authorities urgently carry out reforms in other areas, particularly by appointing tutors and defending the overall interest of the children in question independently.
The aim is to prevent un-accompanied minors disappearing from reception centres and in this connection GRETA highlights a number of good practices that should be followed. A pilot project was therefore launched in this connection in 2008 in the Netherlands. Two protection centres benefiting from specific protection measures whose addresses are kept secret have been set up in this country. They have personnel in place 24 hours a day, with cameras and doors that open only by magnetic cards. Children at these centres benefit from advice and specific assistance and are informed of the risks relating to human trafficking.
It should be pointed out that the COE Convention on Human Trafficking began with the signing of the convention in 2005, followed by the signing and ratification by Albania, Germany, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, United Kingdom, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and Belarus, a non-member state of the COE. Turkey signed the convention but has not ratified it. Russia and the Czech Republic have neither signed nor ratified it. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)