A unaccompanied minor (sometimes "unaccompanied child" or "separate child") is a child without the presence of a legal guardian.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child defines minors without counselors and unaccompanied children as those who "have been separated from both parents and other relatives and are not cared for by adults who, by law or by custom, are responsible for doing so. "The Committee defines children separated as those who" have been separated from the parents, or from the primary care giver or the previous custom, but not necessarily from other relatives.This may, therefore, include accompanying children by other adult family members. "
This term is used in immigration law and aviation policy. Specific definitions vary from country to country and from airline to airline.
Video Unaccompanied minor
Immigration law
In immigration law, unaccompanied children, also known as separate children, are generally defined as foreign citizens or stateless persons under the age of 18, who arrive in the territory of the country without the consent of a responsible adult answer, and as long as they are not effectively cared for such a person. This includes minors being left unaccompanied after they enter the territory of the country. Some countries have non-asylum procedures to try small unaccompanied cases.
Maps Unaccompanied minor
Airline policy
In flight policy, unaccompanied passengers are usually airline passengers between the ages of 5 and 14 (varying flight rules) who travel without the accompanying adult. Children whose adult companions are traveling on the same flight but in different classes may also be classified as minors who are not accompanied. The parent or guardian requesting this service fills out the release form, identifying another guardian who will take the minors at the destination airport. Airline personnel are responsible for escorting children through immigration and customs and boarding the aircraft on time. Fees can be paid for this service.
During the flight, no special attention is given to minors until the flight enters the final landing to the destination. Upon down, the minors were transferred to the nearest exit, which could be in business or first class, so he could leave the plane at the first opportunity and be transferred to the local ground staff. After clearing immigration and customs, the child is released only to adults identified on the document.
Some airlines have a controversial small seating policy that discriminates against adult male passengers by gender. The policy of forbidding minors is sitting next to the grown men and has led to significant criticism and successful legal action.
Some airlines, including Ryanair, will not bring minors who are not accompanied.
Unaccompanied minors
Care and adolescent support
Uncompared children with difficult experience often need support when they are 18 years old, when they may lose the right to certain support, including:
- guardian or representative,
- the right to accommodation in a special home or in a host family,
- children's social, economic, and educational rights
- individuals may be arrested if their immigration status is not regulated or when they are ordered to leave the country.
Supporting the transition of individuals into adulthood and independent living means integrating care and service arrangements as soon as possible. After treatment is the core component of a durable solution, especially for teenagers. Life projects and a full-time care plan are useful tools. The available after-care services for national children deprived of parental care can guide social workers and staff in planning support for the transition of children into adulthood.
Additional care support is offered to young adults aging for treatment up to age 21 or 25 in some European countries, including unaccompanied asylum seekers for 18-year-olds. Some countries extend the stay of young people in reception homes to children until suitable accommodation is found.
Family reunification in destination country
Family reunification is a core component of a long-lasting solution for an unaccompanied child, wherever this is in the child's best interest. Family reunification may occur in the destination country or origin, or in a third country. Social workers and officers should inform the children unimpeded of the possibilities and procedures for family reunification. Children should have access to support when applying for family reunification.
As part of determining best interests, social workers and officials assess whether family reunification is in the child's best interest. Preparation for and monitoring of family reunification prevents and reduces emotional distress for children. When family reunification means risks to the child, alternative treatment arrangements are considered and the child's best interests to maintain family relations and active contact will be assessed.
The child's right to life, survival, and safety exceeds the child's interest to reunite with the family in the home country. Family reunification can not occur in the child's home country if the immigration authorities in the destination country provide international protection to the child. In this case, children have the right to family reunification in the destination country or third country. When children's application for international protection is denied, concerns about child safety can still rule out returns to home countries for family reunification. This may be due to the high level of general violence that poses a risk to the child.
Right to consular help
Children who are outside their country of residence have the right to obtain assistance from embassies and consulate offices representing their country. Consular staff can play an important role in supporting and assisting children abroad, establishing supportive contacts and referrals, and mobilizing aid. Consular staff may contact central authorities or national contact points for technical advice in cases involving children. Under the Vienna Convention of 1963 on Consular Relations of the United Nations, consular functions include helping and assisting citizens of the sending country. This may involve measures to protect the interests of children who are nationals of the sending State within the limits prescribed by the laws of the receiving State, especially when a wali needs to be appointed. The authorities in the destination country should inform the competent consular office without delay when appointing a guardian for a child is considered. The laws and regulations of the receiving State concerning the appointment of a guardian shall apply and shall not be affected by the sharing of information with the relevant consular office.
Resettlement and transfer
Resettlement and integration in a third country
When the best determination of interest process concludes there is no durable solution for the child in the country of destination or origin, the possibility of resettlement to a third country is assessed. Resettlement may be an option when enabling safe family reunification in the resettlement country, or when it protects a child against counterfeiting or torture or other serious human rights violations in the destination country. This may happen when a child trafficking victim must be protected from retaliation or new recruitment by the trader. Unless it poses a risk to the child, the child's parents need to be notified, consulted, and heard in the assessment and resettlement process.
Before a resettlement decision is taken, the best interest determination process considers the following, with reference to the article under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child:
- The duration of legal or other barriers to returning children to their home country;
- Age of child, sex/gender, emotional state, educational background and family;
- The right of the child to retain his identity, including nationality and name (Article 8);
- Continuation in parenting and childcare, including those relating to the ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background of children (Article 20);
- The right of the child to preserve family or family relationships (Article 8) and to the possibility of short, medium and long term family reunification either in the home country, host country or resettlement.
When resettlement is explored for the purpose of family reunification, children and family members residing in a third country must agree and want to reunite. Child welfare or social service authorities in the resettlement country make assessments and ensure service delivery and monitoring after resettlement.
When resettlement is explored for other reasons, the assessment considers whether resettlement can cause barriers to family tracking, family reunification or maintaining family relationships and contacts, including the distance between the resettlement site and the child's family and possible communications.
Transfers in Europe under Dublin III Council Rules
The Dublin III Board of Regulation is an agreement between Member States of the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland governing which country is responsible for checking a person's asylum application. This provides the possibility to transfer people to responsible countries. The regulation assumes that the Common European Asylum System already exists and is fully operational. Under this precondition, adults and children may be transferred to other participating States without compromising the person's right to international protection with appropriate acceptance and care standards. Transfers are only allowed when the first instant decision on the previous app has not been retrieved.
The Dublin III Board of Regulation provides that the child's best interests should be the Member's primary consideration when applying the Rules, in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the EU Fundamental Rights Charter. The Regulation requires Member States to assess the child's best interests to:
- Take a good look at child welfare, social development, safety and security, and background;
- Consider the child's view of age and maturity;
- Develop special procedural guarantees for unaccompanied children taking into account their particular vulnerabilities;
- Work closely between Member States to exercise best interest assessments under the Rules.
The identification and location of family members may affect which Member States are responsible for processing asylum applications from unaccompanied persons:
- A Member State in which a family member or sibling is legally present is liable, provided that the child's best interest is that he or her application be assessed in that circumstance.
- When a relative is legally present in another Member State, the assessment determines whether the relative can take care of the child. When it is possible, the child is united with his relative if this is in his best interest. The Member State becomes responsible.
- When family members and relatives reside in different Member States, decisions about which Member State is responsible are guided by the child's best interests.
- When a family member or relative can not be identified, the responsible Member State is where an unaccompanied child has applied for asylum, if it is in the child's best interest.
- Some wisdom is permitted in this decision with the consent of the applicant, including for family reunification for humanitarian or cultural reasons.
The process for determining which Member State is responsible will begin as soon as the asylum application is submitted. Once a Member State receives a request to take over an applicant, a decision must be made within a period of two months. In very complex cases, the term may be extended an additional month.
When requesting another country to take over or accept someone back, Member States have written consent to send information about the applicant, including information about the immediate needs of the applicant and contact details of family members, relatives or other family relationships in Member Status where persons are transferred. For children, this includes information about children's education and age assessment. The applicant has the right to be notified of the data being processed and is entitled to have the data corrected or deleted when incomplete or false. For unaccompanied children, social workers and staff ensure that the child receives support.
The Petitioners have the right to an effective remedy against decisions taken under the Regulations in the form of appeals or judicial review, before the courts or courts, including the right to legal aid and interpretation. Transfers are automatically suspended during the appeal or review of the decision, and the applicant has the right to remain in Member State pending the outcome. The responsibility of the Member State stops when there is evidence to ensure that the person has left the area for at least three months. After this period, the person must apply for a new asylum.
Back
Determining the best interest decides if returning a child to his home country is in the best interest of the child. Ongoing returns are rights-based and child-centered. Before returning, the authorities in the destination country ensure the child will be safely and safeguarded. Some assessments of best interest determination can be updated. The determination of an incomplete best interest may provide a reason for the child to appeal his or her decision for his or her best interest.
Pre-return preparation
Careful preparation to re-ensure results that are dignified, secure and rights-based. Returns can be a positive experience, especially if the return plan is sustainable. Children and adolescents can be better prepared to lead independent lives when adults earn income if given training relevant to home country in life and social skills, academic and professional training, as well as entrepreneurial skills and negotiation capacity. Those who return may need support to be literate in the language of the country and the community in which they return.
When re-considered in the best interests of the child, the individual's return and reintegration plan prepares for resettlement, reintegration and follow-up monitoring, and determines the child's needs and appropriate support services. The continuity of care arrangements and support services for children from destination countries to countries of return is a priority, including:
- Continued vocational education and training: upon return to the country of origin prior to graduation from school or vocational training, the child must receive any educational certificate the child has completed in the destination country. It may be in the best interest of the child to complete his or her education before it is returned.
- Continuation of health care and medical care: children should have access to the same care or health care or alternatives that the child can regularly access in the destination country.
- Continuity of guardianship arrangements: continuity of the guardianship must be ensured when the child is not returned to him or his parents or primary caregiver.
Pre-return counseling, including psycho-social counseling, can help people return to the difficulties and concerns that may arise even when the return is considered the best for the child. Counseling can help the child to gain confidence and feel safe and empowered about him or her back and his choice after returning.
Transport phase
Unaccompanied children who are returned after receiving negative decisions on their asylum applications and who participate in the program for 'voluntary assistance' are usually escorted during travel to the country of origin. Escort ensures the child arrives safely and is met by a responsible authority and guardian or caregiver.
Post-restore and reintegration phase
The post-return support program protects returning young people, ensures that their rights are protected, and makes sustainable results. They can help restore positive, constructive, and successful experiences. The cooperative authorities of the destination countries and back to work together ensure continuous provision of care, support and ongoing assistance to returning youth, including counseling services. Cross-border teams monitor and re-evaluate programs, especially reintegration support, suitability and sustainability of actions.
Monitoring and evaluation consider the views of returning people, ensuring regular review. This allows adjustment of care settings and support services to ensure the right of children returning from children and the principles of quality care for children, continuity of care, safety and the right of the child to live, survival and development are enforced. The national child protection system and referral mechanisms can ensure that monitoring takes place and findings are taken into account to inform rapid adjustments. The following aspects are evaluated:
- The quality of the interaction between the officer and service provider and returns, in the country of origin and destination;
- Quality of preparation and information and counseling available to children before return;
- Conditions in waiting and custody areas, if applicable;
- The files returned and the transparency and quality of the documentation they provide;
- Continuation of care, protection, health and education services and guardianship, if applicable;
- Quality of parenting and child relationships with parents or other caregivers;
- The social and economic situation of the returning person, the support available to him or the transition to adult and independent life and the integration of children in the community after return;
- The possibility for returning children to access the reporting and complaint mechanisms that support them in claiming their rights upon return.
European private law on returning children
The Rules of the Brussels II Bus regulate the responsibilities of parents in transnational cases. It guides social workers and officers who consider protection measures in cross-border cases involving children who are EU citizens. Contact should be made with the authority of the child's home country, which provides information about the child's situation, parent and any formal decision or action relating to parental responsibility or other relevant matters. Although the Regulation is particularly applicable to civil law matters related to parental abduction and parental responsibility, it is also applied to the protection and return of EU migrant children, including street-based children or those engaged in activity-based roads and those at risk or exposed to exploitation and trade.
The Brussels II bus regulations reflect some of the provisions given under the Hague Conference Convention on Private International Law, in particular the Hague Convention of October 25, 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abductions. In addition to each EU Member State, the EU is also a Member of the Hague Conference on Private International Law and approves several newer Hague Conventions. The Hague Convention is regularly applied in transnational civil law cases concerning children, especially in the case of international adoption, parental parental abduction and parental responsibilities, and cross-border child placement. The procedures established under the Hague Convention can also be used for the protection of migrant children and the return of children to their countries of residence.
When children are returned in case of international family law, the central authority of the state returns to manage the returns. The mandate of the central authority governing the return of a child ends usually when the child arrives at a typical country of residence. Follow-up services are provided upon return, including by International Social Service. The national branches of the International Social Services can provide support with practical arrangements for the return of the child to the country of normal residence, the translation of the social evaluation report and provide expert opinions before return and in follow-up.
Alternatives to immigration detention
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that "no child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in accordance with the law and shall only be used as a measure of the last resort and for the shortest appropriate ". These rights apply also to the context of detention of unaccompanied or separated children: "Unaccompanied or separated children should not, as a general rule, be detained." The detention can not be justified solely on the basis of an unaccompanied child or separated, or migration status or their population, or lack thereof. "Depriving their children of liberty for immigration matters is a violation of their human rights.
Immigration detention conditions are rarely appropriate for children, especially when detention is ordered for long periods of time. In immigration detention, children often face challenges in accessing education, adequate health care, adequate food and accommodation and may have limited opportunities for leisure and recreational activities. Detention is a very sad experience, especially for migrants and asylum seekers. It has a harmful impact on the mental health, well-being and development of children. The experience of detention may cause or aggravate previous traumatization. In some cases, migrant children are held together with their families to prevent family separation in cases where parents are detained due to immigration matters. When it is in the child's best interests to remain with him or his parents, alternatives to detention may be considered for the whole family.
Alternatives to detention include registration and reporting requirements, storage of documents, bonds or guarantees, designated residence, case management or supervised release, community surveillance, electronic monitoring, home curfew or house arrest. Countries working with alternative detention have made positive experiences and noted that these alternatives work in practice. Asylum seekers usually adhere to the conditions imposed on them in the context of alternative measures for detention. The point is that the control of people returning through detention is replaced by a management and oversight process with respect to the human rights of the persons concerned, which is also more cost-effective for the state.
The minimum standards for detaining migrant children, as described by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, are:
- Deprivation of liberty of migrant children, accompanied or not, should be temporary and for the shortest period possible.
- Migration-related detention centers should be separated from prison and should not be in common with conditions such as prisons.
- Centers where child detention takes place must have child protection officers specially trained in child care and protection.
- Children and adolescents should be separated from adults unless it is considered for their best interests. The center should ensure an opportunity for regular contact with family members and friends.
- The center should ensure regular and confidential contact with legal and consular representatives.
- While living in a detention center, even for a while, children should be guaranteed full enjoyment of economic and social rights such as education, health care, recreation, food, water and clothing.
- Provisions of independent mechanisms to examine and monitor conditions of detention facilities, including by independent bodies.
Trends in Europe
Most countries of Europe and North America experience an increase in minors who are not accompanied. The majority of underage children are men, between 15 and 18 years old, from Afghanistan, Iraq, West and Central Africa and Somalia. Most apply for asylum after arriving in the recipient country.
Russian
An unaccompanied child with Russian citizenship must have his/her own passport, a visa (when the purpose requires one), and a notarized statement in Russian from both parents confirming that they consent to a child leaving the country unaccompanied.
Spanish
In Spain most cases of unaccompanied children fall under a non-asylum procedure.
Swedish
In Sweden, about 8% of unaccompanied minors (up to age 21) use narcotics.
Test age
About two-thirds of asylum seekers in the UK (for the year before September 2015) whose age they are debated are found likely to be over 18 years old. In Sweden 2481 cases where individuals allegedly are above 18 submitted and 2002 rated as 18 or older. In 25 of them it is rated as "possible" and 432 "possible". The Swedish government decided to test the age only in 2016, actual testing begun in 2017. There were 1481 age tests conducted with "unaccompanied child migrants" in Sweden (during the period March-June 2017) and in 1215 cases the age examination concluded that age they are over 18 years old. Even the best method has a 10% failure rate. When the second opinion is made the result is different in 85% of cases.
United States
In the United States, in addition to asylum, minors without compensation may be eligible for a T (human trafficking) visa, U visa (crime victim), or special status of immigrant Teenagers (abused, neglected children , or abandoned).
Violent Violence
On July 18, 2016, the WÃÆ'¼rzburg train struck a 17-year-old refugee who was not accompanied by Afghanistan, seriously injuring four people, two critics, with knives and axes on trains near Wörzburg in Germany. The refugees seem to have managed to integrate but suddenly become radical. She is one of 60,000 minors who are unaccompanied who have come to Germany for the past year.
In popular culture
The Christmas Movie of 2006 No Minors is about a team of six minors, played by Tyler James Williams, Dyllan Christopher, Brett Kelly, Gina Mantegna, Shephard Quinn and Dominique Saldaà Film  ± a.
See also
References
External links
- UNHCR: Vulnerable Groups, Unresolved Parents
- United Airlines: Children Traveling Unaccompanied
Category: Civil Aviation
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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