Asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children
Recommended measures (7)
32. In the light of its general comment No. 6 (2005) on the treatment of unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin, and joint general comment No. 3 (2017) of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the general principles regarding the human rights of children in the context of international migration, the Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Consider establishing a system to automatically reassess temporary residency permits of unaccompanied children and issuing residence permits of a longer duration.
(b) Address additional root causes of the disappearance of children from reception centres.
(c) Increase its efforts to search for missing children, provide them with the necessary protection, redress and rehabilitation and ensure that, if they have fallen victim to crimes, the perpetrators are brought to justice.
(d) Under no circumstances deport children and their families back to countries where there is a risk of irreparable harm to the children such as, but by no means limited to, those contemplated under articles 6 (1) and 37 of the Convention.
(e) Place children and their families in reception centres only for the shortest time possible, and increase the human, technical and financial resources allocated to reception centres with a view to ensuring adequate conditions for children during their residency therein and to ensuring in particular that they are protected from violence, that their mental health needs are assessed and that they have access to nutritious food.
(f) Ensure that under no circumstances are children placed in detention on the basis of their immigration status.
(g) Ensure that unaccompanied children in all municipalities, including those above 15 years of age, receive good-quality care.