On Wednesday 30 November during the 10th European Forum on the Protection of Children in Migration, the First Vice President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, presented the priority measures the European institutions should put in place to help unaccompanied minors in migration.
The migration crisis is a European challenge that is hitting Greece and Italy extremely hard and these two countries were represented at the forum by Ioannis Mouzalas, the Minister responsible for Migration at the Greek Ministry of the Interior and Mario Morcone, his Italian counterpart. Mr Morcone stated, “We are calling on the European institutions to show more imagination in an effort to achieve results”.
Mr Timmermans conceded, “Relocation is experiencing difficulties in taking off but it is imperative that it becomes a common policy. The Commission has to look at this issue very soon”. The relocation of unaccompanied minors in Greece and Italy has so far only been carried out through bilateral agreements between member states, mainly with Germany and Estonia.
A common registration system for data exchanges between member states is also expected to be among the EU’s priorities. According to the Commission Vice President, “The systems have to speak to each other, it is essential that member states are able to communicate”, as is the case in the fight against terrorism. This will help to improve placing children and facilitating family reunification.
Mr Mouzalas and Mr Morcone also encouraged the Commission to set up tutoring bodies. This project is strongly supported by Mr Timmermans and would help judges in the different member states to directly appoint tutors for children in migration, so that the latter can quickly be placed with a host family instead of refugee camps.
Situation not improving
Migration flows have a dynamic of their own and the number of unaccompanied minors in migration is continually increasing in Europe. More than 60,000 migrants are still stranded in Greece, 48% of whom are children. 250 of these children are unaccompanied minors that still have to be taken into care. Nathalie Griesbeck MEP (ALDE, France) exclaimed, “These children are still in camps where the infrastructure is inappropriate and they can become victims of trafficking, including sexual trafficking and exploitation”.
Mr Morcone explained, “Reception is not just about increasing the number of places available”. The Commission therefore has to look at the questions affecting the opportunities for education, training schemes and university places for children and migration, very soon. During the forum, the question of improving respect for procedural deadlines, particularly registration, was raised on a number of occasions. Mr Morcone provided assurances that “ensuring quality reception will prevent a problem of children leaving the camps and wandering around alone at the mercy of terrorist networks”.
Mr Timmermans concluded that these children should not be seen as another of our current problems but rather, as an invaluable resource for the future. (Original version in French by Thomas Régnier)