Asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children

Recalling its previous recommendations, and recalling joint general comments No. 3 and No. 4 of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families/No. 22 and No. 23 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2017) on the human rights of children in the context of international migration, the Committee recommends that the State Party:

(a) Adopt legislation to ensure that adequate reception and care arrangements are available for all children, regardless of age, seeking to benefit from international protection

(b) Allocate more resources to reception centres where unaccompanied children live, and strengthen the inspection system

(c) Transfer responsibility to the child welfare services for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children aged 15 to 18, in order to ensure that they receive an equal standard of care to those under the age of 15

(d) Ensure a child-friendly asylum process, including safeguarding the right of every child to be heard, guaranteeing that the best interests of the child are specifically assessed and given weight in expulsion cases, and ensuring that children are not returned in breach of the non-refoulement principle

(e) Eliminate temporary residence permits for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children aged 16 to 18 and provide an interim measure until the asylum process is decided upon;

(f) Ensure that the age-assessment procedure is in line with the principle of the presumption of minority and gives the individual concerned the opportunity to challenge the outcome through a judicial procedure; that the age-assessment procedure is undertaken only in cases of doubt about the age of the individual concerned, is subject to the informed assent of the child, is conducted in a safe and child- and gender-sensitive manner, and is undertaken by an independent, multidisciplinary team with appropriate expertise; and that while the procedure is under way, the individual concerned is treated as a child and remains within the child protection system

(g) Prohibit the detention of children in connection with immigration cases

(h) Take immediate administrative measures to prevent and detect the disappearance of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and improve investigation thereof

(i) Ensure that asylum-seeking children who arrive at reception centres accompanied by an adult without parental responsibility receive the quality of care to which they are entitled under the Convention