8.2.1 ensuring that all unaccompanied migrant children are adequately
registered upon arrival in Europe, and that registration data are
exchanged between the various authorities involved in their reception
and care;
8.2.2 assigning responsibilities to institutions specifically
in charge of implementing programmes for the protection of unaccompanied
migrant minors and of supervising and co-ordinating their asylum
procedures involving various public authorities and services and
civil society organisations;
8.2.3 ensuring that unaccompanied migrant minors are treated
first and foremost as children immediately on arrival in Europe,
that they are allocated dedicated accommodation and given protection
against all forms of violence and abuse (including sexual abuse
and exploitation and human trafficking), that they are not held
in immigration detention under any circumstances, as promoted by
the Parliamentary Campaign to End Immigration Detention of Children,
and that they have access to health care and sanitary conditions
which are conducive to their rapid recovery from physical and psychological
hardship;
8.2.4 providing child-friendly information and trained interpreters
and counsellers for children on arrival to avoid confusion, re-traumatisation
and misunderstandings from the outset, which, added to substandard
reception conditions, push children to abscond from reception centres;
8.2.5 in cases where a child’s age cannot be established by
identity documents and only where there is doubt as to the individual’s
status as a minor, carrying out early and non-intrusive age assessment
in full respect for the dignity and integrity of children. The procedure
should be multidisciplinary and carried out by independent professionals,
familiar with their ethnic, cultural and developmental characteristics.
Similar principles should apply when there is a dispute over the
country of origin;
8.2.6 improving or introducing accelerated asylum application
procedures for unaccompanied minors, including the early designation
of sufficiently trained guardians and legal representatives who
can assist children and who are each allocated a small number of
migrant children;
8.2.7 ensuring that children have access to education at registration
and throughout waiting periods, then facilitating their entry into
mainstream education systems once the procedures for asylum or other
forms of regularisation are engaged;
8.2.8 allocating sufficient funding to the structures put in
place for care and protection of unaccompanied migrant minors, in
particular associations and other civil society bodies, but also ensuring
that domestic legislation and regulations are adapted to provide
specific administrative procedures for lone child migrants;
8.2.9 to prevent unaccompanied migrant children from going missing,
ensuring that responsibilities are transferred seamlessly during
the different stages of the procedure, from reception to integration
of migrant minors, in order to minimise the risk of unaccompanied
minors “slipping through the gaps” in protection and absconding;
8.2.10 identifying and implementing durable solutions for unaccompanied
children, based on a thorough assessment of the best interests of
the child, on her or his right to safety, protection and development
and on the definition of a life project with each child, and establishing
monitoring procedures on compliance with the best interests of the
child in case of return of the children;
8.2.11 in all cases, ensuring that unaccompanied or separated
migrant minors are never refused entry into a country, in accordance
with the non-refoulement obligations
deriving from international human rights, humanitarian and refugee
law.
