EU must do more to protect child migrants, NGOs say
-
A refugee mother with a child in Athens. (Photo: Nikolaj Nielsen)
The EU and member states aren't doing enough to safeguard the interests of child migrants, 78 human rights groups have said.
The activists, meeting in Brussels for the European Forum on the Rights of the Child on 29 and 30 November, said in a joint statement that children have their rights breached constantly.
Join EUobserver today
Become an expert on Europe
Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.
Choose your plan
... or subscribe as a group
Don't miss out on
Our exclusive news stories and investigations. Influential. Investigative. Independent.
Why join?
Watch our founder Lisbeth Kirk explain the reasons in this 30-second video.
Already a member?
The campaigners pointed out that one in four asylum seekers in the EU is a minor, and more than 700 children are estimated to have drowned when trying to reach Europe this year alone. Last week a six-year-old died in a fire at the EU so-called hotspot camp in Moria, Greece.
Lengthy bureaucratic processes keep children out of school for months, the NGOs said. Many wait for more than a year before being reunited with family members in another country.
They said children are regularly locked up to prevent them from going missing. But thousands have nonetheless disappeared during their asylum process.
"Many of these children will one day become EU citizens. We need to invest in them and encourage them to become active participants in our societies. The EU and member states can do a lot more," the organisations, which include UNHCR, UNICEF and Save the Children, said.
The groups are urging states to adopt an EU action plan strengthening safeguards for children in the asylum legislation, and set aside more money for national child protection schemes and new mechanisms to protect children across borders.
EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos was clear that child protection needed to be at the heart of EU asylum and migration law.
"Even if we succeed in all areas of our migration policy, if we don't succeed in protecting children, we have not succeeded at all," he said on Tuesday.
