With many tens of thousands of children estimated to be found
within the European Union (EU) each year without legal papers,
parents or means to be looked after, IOM is launching a new
Europe-wide programme aimed at improving current legislation
promoting and protecting the rights of unaccompanied minors
arriving on the territory.

Funded by the European Commission, the programme will bring
together a network of experts and government officials from
Belgium, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania to
produce a manual and recommendations on first reception and
treatment of unaccompanied minors.

Improved legislation should be based on principles such as
making decisions based on the best interests of the child, placing
unaccompanied minors in less restrictive settings and in a
permanent environment as soon as possible.

"Unaccompanied minors should be treated with special attention
and care. They are particularly vulnerable, not least because of
the emotional and physical traumas they have experienced during
their travels," said Bernd Hemingway, IOM’s Regional
Representative in Brussels. "Some of these children may be victims
of abuse, neglect, or abandonment; while others, separated from
their families, social network and communities of origin, become
depressed or experience psychosomatic symptoms. Despite progress
mainly in awareness-raising and improving institutional responses,
many protection concerns still remain in Europe."

Recognizing that defending the best interests of the child can
often conflict with the migration legislation of an individual
country due to a fear that a too favourable status for minors might
create a migration pull factor, the programme will focus on
European-wide coordination and coherence of decisions concerning
unaccompanied minors, provision of social services, guardianship
systems, mechanisms to identify and verify children and their ages,
and reception policies.

Experts and national authorities will also address the problem
of unaccompanied minors who disappear from reception centres and
who run a high risk of becoming victims of trafficking.

Unaccompanied children come to the EU from all parts of the
world, especially from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. In Belgium
alone, about one thousand unaccompanied minors enter the country
each year.

The first experts’ meeting will take place in Brussels in
September, followed by exchange study visits and a second
experts’ meeting in Vienna.

For further information, please contact:

Pascal Reyntjens

Tel: +32-2-282.45.60

E-mail: "mailto:preyntjens@iom.int">preyntjens@iom.int