On Wednesday 22 March, Tomáš Boček, the Special Representative for the Council of Europe Secretary General on migration and refugees, published a report in which he identifies the main challenges involved in decision-making specifically involving the care and responsibility for children.
The text explains that based on the 2015 figures from the High Commissioner for Refugees, children account for half of all displaced persons in the world. With regard to Europe, data provided by Eurostat and the European Parliament Research Services explain that almost 30% of asylum requests received over the past two years involved children.
Based on information missions carried out in 2016 in Greece, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Italy and the north of France, the Special Representative’s report identifies a number of areas of concern. These include the question of identifying and determining age, registration, access to appropriate procedures and statelessness, etc. It advocates urgent measures in an attempt to identify alternatives to the retention of children and guaranteeing minimum standards for living conditions in the camps.
Following the Council of Europe Lanzarote Committee’s publication on 6 March last of a specific report on sexual abuse against under age migrants (see EUROPE 11739), the Special Representative is, for example, advocating separate toilet and washing facilities for men and women, improved lighting and areas adapted to children, in an effort to protect them from possible predators.
The report also called for the introduction of a system for tutoring unaccompanied minors, access to appropriate administrative procedures and specialist language support.
This paper is the first step to help orientate the activities of the Council of Europe to concentrating more on providing refugees and migrants with access to their rights. It will be followed by a migrant and refugee child protection action plan, which is expected to be adopted in May. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)