The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Migrations and childhood

2022-06-30T12:51:30.609Z


The protection of minors who arrive at the borders with relatives other than their parents cannot continue to rest on the suspicion that they are victims of trafficking, whether they come from Ukraine or from the southern border


The war in Ukraine has caused the largest exodus in Europe for decades.

Among the people who move, there are minors who travel without their parents, accompanied by other adults.

Upon arrival in Spain, these minors sometimes arrive undocumented, so their identity and relationship with the person with whom they are traveling cannot be verified.

These minors are considered to be at risk, they are transferred together with the adult with whom they travel to reception centers and their arrival is communicated to the Police and the Prosecutor's Office, while more information is obtained.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child distinguishes between minors traveling accompanied, unaccompanied and separated minors.

The first are those who travel with one or both parents, or with their guardian, and unaccompanied minors are minors who travel without their parents or guardians.

Separated minors are “children separated from both parents or their guardians, but not necessarily from other relatives.

Therefore, they may be minors accompanied by other adult members of the family

.

Spanish legislation and administrative practice include the phenomenon of accompanied minors and unaccompanied minors, but not that of separated minors.

Any decision to protect these Ukrainian minors must primarily attend to their best interests.

The authorities must avoid traumatic separation from the adults who accompany them, who must be able to maintain the custody of the minors.

This is contemplated by the European regulations on the protection of displaced persons, in coherence with the

UNHCR

Do no harm principle.

And it is that the principle of proportionality requires that the separation be reserved only for cases in which, in an accredited manner, the minor is in a situation of danger and there are no other less burdensome protection measures.

This reality of separated minors is not new in Spain.

The arrival at the southern Spanish border (Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla) of children traveling with adults (mostly women) is a growing trend in recent years, although it is hardly visible.

As these are irregular arrivals, the focus of concern has been on the possibility that the minors were victims of trafficking.

For this reason, if the women who accompany them are not their biological mothers, the minors are usually removed, entering the services for the protection of minors.

In these years, many young foreign boys and girls have been painfully separated upon arrival in Spain from the only person of reference they had.

However, from our experience, most of the adults who accompany these minors are their relatives, and their relationship with them is one of attachment and protection.

Frequently, migration to Europe is carried out to try to reunite minors with their parents.

Childhood on the move poses new realities that require rethinking the child protection system to adapt to their needs.

Before assuming that they are victims of trafficking, we need to reveal the circumstances of each case, bearing in mind that we are dealing with a minor (and sometimes, also, with an applicant for international protection).

For this, it is necessary to promote child protection actions from specialized shelters, provisionally avoiding the separation of minors from their adult relatives, as is being done now with Ukrainian minors.

These actions must be aimed at analyzing the bond and attachment between the minor and the adult, knowing the circumstances of the minor and, where appropriate, ensuring the rapid reunification of separated families.

For all this,

the collaboration of the adult person is a key piece.

And in this process of identification and investigation, we must, of course, be attentive to the detection, where appropriate, of indicators of trafficking.

Children on the move require new forms of intervention that are well aware of the reality of migrant families and respond to the needs of these minors.

We need transnational interventions that investigate origin and destination, as well as the elaboration of our own procedure for the reunification of migrant families with their sons and daughters, taking into account their circumstances and difficulties.

The protection of minors who arrive at the borders with women who are not their mothers cannot continue to rest on the suspicion that they are victims of trafficking.

Experience has shown us that it is preferable to keep them together, cautiously, whether they come from Ukraine or from the southern border.

Separations are traumatic and should be used only as a last resort.

Cristina Manzanedo

is coordinator of the Ödos program and

José Alberto Navarro

is a patron of the Fundación Profesor Uría.

50% off

Exclusive content for subscribers

read without limits

subscribe

I'm already a subscriber

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-06-30

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-20T04:50:52.065Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.