by Francisco Vella
In 2009, the FRA investigated the conditions of life and the experiences with legal procedures of separated, asylum-seeking children by engaging directly with them, as well as with adults responsible for their care.
Drawing on evidence from interviews with 336 children and 302 adults, the report was aimed to provide a picture of the situation on the ground of separated, asylum-seeking children in 12 EU member states.
The fieldwork was carried out in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Hungary, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The research found that many of the rights of these children, which are often not clearly reflected in EU legal provisions, are not always fulfilled.
According to the report, in Malta, although according to government policy asylum-seeking children are to be placed in one of the two residential centres catering for these children (Dar is-Sliem or Dar il-Liedna, run by the Organisation for the Integration and Welfare of Asylum Seekers (OIWAS)), in practice, when their age is disputed, this may take months.
All the asylum-seeking children interviewed had spent a period in detention ranging from one to six months and described their experience in very negative terms.
Some had serious difficulties coping with the physical and verbal aggression they witnessed and experienced: “too many fights, shouting, bad talk, TV on all day on maximum volume […].”
In a closed and overcrowded environment, the mixture of adult and young asylum seekers from different cultural backgrounds and speaking different languages made for an explosive mix.
Children also complained of being bullied by adults, describing their situation as a case of “survival of the fittest”. A child, for example, described to the interviewer how phone cards he was given to contact his family were snatched away by adult detainees.
All children were greatly relieved when they were removed to the open accommodation centres.
The report says the interviewer in Malta came across a particularly disturbing experience of a 16-year-old boy, highly articulate who had threatened to commit suicide while in detention, and at one point slept outside in the cold for a number of days, in protest.
But age assessment was a very sensitive issue for children in every country engaged in the research, with the exception of Sweden, where those few children whose age had been assessed had no problem with the procedure.
Other children, particularly in Austria, France, Hungary and the UK, expressed fear and were critical of age assessment procedures, and had little information about them. Many said that officials should simply believe them.
A number of children and adults in Austria, France, Malta, Hungary and the United Kingdom identified the need for more and better interpretation services in medical consultations and, in particular, in counselling and psychological support.
It therefore appears that children often have to go through medical procedures without an interpreter. Frequently, friends, social workers or educators are needed to assist with interpretation.
Many children stressed the importance of the support provided by social workers, foster parents, volunteers, friends and other people of trust to these children, including the form of interpretation and intercultural mediation, when they need to access healthcare.
None of the children interviewed in Malta attended school; at the time of the research, OIWAS and the Education Ministry were exploring ways of improving the situation, for example, by recruiting “liaison teachers” to facilitate the entry of these children into mainstream schools based on an individual assessment of their linguistic, curricular, cultural, and psychosocial needs.
Last month the European Parliament approved new rules by means of which traffickers in human beings are to face tougher penalties for their crime and victims will be entitled to better protection and assistance.
The new rules will apply to trafficking in the sex industry or labour exploitation in, for example, construction work, farming or domestic service.
Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil had commented on the new rules prior to their approval, saying that they could be a first stepping-stone in combating the consequences brought about by children migrating on their own to Europe.
“Special actions to assist unaccompanied minors, appointment of individual guardians and the presence of representatives are all perfect examples of the use this directive could bring to the table,” he said
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