Dal 18 agosto 2012 ad oggi sono 77 i minori stranieri non accompagnati (la maggior parte somali ed eritrei tra i 12 ed i 17 anni, tra cui 2 ragazze) giunti dalla Libia a Lampedusa, di cui 51 (27 somali, 14 eritrei, 8 ghambiani, 1 senegalese e 1 del Mali fra i 12 e i 17 anni) si trovano ancora presso il Centro di Pronta Accoglienza dell'isola in condizioni precarie e inadeguate.
Pubblicati i risultati del progetto internazionale “Protecting Children on the Move” che a Roma, Patrasso e Calais, fra 2011 e 2012, ha offerto una prima accoglienza a 1.094 “minori non accompagnati” in viaggio verso il Regno Unito, la Germania e il Nord Europa. Ma solo 37 hanno accettato di entrare nei servizi istituzionali di protezione, per tutta una serie di motivi…
The immigrant who was facing deportation rose to his feet, in a clean T-shirt and khaki pants several sizes too large, with his name - JUAN - printed on a tag around his neck.
But the judge could not see him. Juan's head did not rise above the court's benches.
Juan David Gonzalez was 6 years old. He was in the court, which would decide whether to expel him from the country, without a parent - and also without a lawyer.
Immigration courts in this South Texas border town and across the country are confronting an unexpected surge of children, some of them barely school age, who traveled here without parents and were caught as they tried to cross illegally into the United States.
The young people, mostly from Mexico and Central America, ride to the border on the roofs of freight trains or the backs of buses. They crossed the Rio Grande on inner tubes, or hike for days through extremes of heat and chill in Arizona deserts. The smallest children, like Juan, are most often brought by smugglers.
The youths pose troubling difficulties for American immigration courts. Unlike in criminal or family courts, in immigration court there is no right to a lawyer paid by the government for people who cannot afford one. And immigration law contains few protections specifically for minors. So even a child as young as Juan has to go before an immigration judge - confronting a prosecutor and trying to fight deportation - without the help of a lawyer, if one is not privately provided.
So far this year, more than 11,000 unaccompanied minors have been placed in deportation proceedings, nearly double last year's numbers.
Young migrants say they are fleeing sharply escalating criminal violence in their home countries. Federal agencies have scrambled to muster adequate detention facilities, while legal advocates try to find lawyers to represent them. Judges, for their part, have struggled to offer fair hearings to penniless youths who speak little English and often do not even understand why they are in court.
The influx has heightened concerns that young people without legal help may not be able to obtain even the most basic justice.
"It is almost impossible for children to receive relief in immigration court on their own," said Meredith Linsky, the director of the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, known as ProBar, a nonprofit organization that defends young migrants in the region. "The reality is they cannot comprehend the system and what is being asked of them."
Judge Howard Achtsam postponed Juan's proceedings, but he warned the boy and other minors in the courtroom.
"If you do not have a lawyer," the judge said, "you need to be ready to speak for yourselves at your next hearing."
Juan left holding the social worker's hand, grinning proudly when she told him he had done well. But his case was just beginning. Most likely it would end with a final order for his deportation.
http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Immigration-courts-see-surge-in-children-3815806.php#ixzz24eGAdwzW
Australia has seen an increase in asylum seekers arriving by boat in recent monthsChild refugee Aziza was being forced into marriage and genital circumcision in her native Chad when the then 11 year old managed to escape to Canada.
Aziza, now 15, is one of hundreds of unaccompanied child refugees -- those under the age of 18 -- who show up yearly at Canadian borders seeking protection from alleged human traffickers and other abusers.
Canadian immigration officials do not track child claimants and workers estimate as many as 3,000 of them, either unaccompanied or with a guardian, show up each year at Canadian airports and land border crossings.
Aziza, whose identity is being protected because of her age, was left in Chad with an aunt by her mom, who fled to Canada as a refugee to escape persecution, Federal Court of Canada documents show.
"(Aziza) was born out of wedlock and this was considered shameful," Judge Andre Scott said in his decision. "Her biological mother left her daughter at the age of three months in the care of her sister."
Court heard the aunt subsequently left for Canada, leaving Aziza with her husband, who had collected part of a dowry in exchange for permitting the girl, then 11, to be married to an older man. As a result, Aziza had to undergo circumcision.
The mother was stunned by the news of her daughter's impending marriage and persuaded relatives in Chad to obtain documents to spirit Aziza to safety in Canada, where she arrived in January 2009 and filed an unsuccessful refugee claim.
Her failed refugee decision was appealed to the Federal Court that granted another hearing before an Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).
Aziza is now living in Montreal with family members. Her lawyer, Claude Whalen, couldn't be reached to comment on the case.
Scott ruled in a June 25 decision that Aziza did not receive a proper hearing before the IRB.
"I am loath to believe that a refugee status claim could be dismissed solely on the ground that as the claimant is a young child he or she was incapable of experiencing fear, the reasons for which clearly exist in objective terms," he wrote.
"Given the sheer number of errors committed by the IRB in this case, the court finds that the decision is unreasonable and the matter must be returned for reconsideration," Scott ruled.
Court was told Aziza was prevented from attending school by her uncle in Chad because he believed women should not be educated and remain at home.
"Some of these children are illiterate and have little or no experience of formal schooling," according to a counsellor who works with child claimants. "Refugees may suffer from trauma-related ailments due to their experience of living in war-torn countries."
Most child refugees suffer from learning difficulties and adjusting to a new life in Canada, the counsellor said.
Aziza, as with other child claimants, are interviewed on arrival by officers of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA.) If the children show up at Pearson Airport with no documents or anyone to meet them, Peel Children's Aid Society is called.
Society spokesperson Whitney Rodricks said child-care workers are called about 12 times yearly to help children at Pearson.
"We will conduct an investigation if the child has no documents or no one to claim them," Rodricks said. "We will investigate to determine if the the child has family in Canada."
She said workers will contact agencies in the child's homeland to try and locate family members.
"We try to return the child to their family," Rodricks said. "We will attempt to repatriate children with family members if there is not a risk of harm to that child."
She said her workers usually stay in contact with the children until they turn 21.
IRB spokesman Robert Gervais said there's no information available on child claimants.
"The IRB has no available statistics regarding unaccompanied minors requesting refugee status," Gervais said by e-mail, adding an Access to Information Request is required "to permit the IRB to see if we could compile these statistics for a given period of time."
Toronto lawyer Guidy Mamann said child claimants are provided a "designated representative" to help them during hearings before the IRB to determine if they are legitimate refugees.
"Some of these kids are quite traumatized by the time they get here," Mamann said. "Some have been through bloody wars and have seen explosions, bullets and a lot of violence."
He said some children arrive from horrific refugee camps, where they've witnessed people dying.
"Many times these children are put on flights with false documents just to get them to safety," Mamann said. "Most of the times there is no one here to claim the children."
He said cases involving refugee claimant parents with young children are heard separately, and sometimes the parents are sent back home and the children are allowed to stay.
"We have had cases where the children are allowed to stay and the parents are sent back home," Mamann said. "Sometimes the kids are not accepted and the parents are."
He added it takes from two to four years for refugee parents to sponsor their ailing children to Canada.
And, some of the youngsters are detained on arrival until their cases are sorted out.
The Canadian Council for Refugees is concerned about the detention of some of the child claimants and want a national policy on how the children should be treated.
"Significant weight is not always given to the best interests of the child when detention is being considered," the council said on its website. "Children, many of them asylum-seekers, are regularly detained in Canada, sometimes for many weeks."
The group said children are frequently in detention with a parent even though they have done nothing wrong.
In Toronto, teachers are brought in several times a week to an immigration detention centre on Rexdale Blvd. to instruct the children of refugees and others awaiting deportation. There are children's toys and games in a family wing of the centre.
"The lack of coherent policy for separated children leaves child victims of trafficking unprotected," the council said. "Canada still lacks a clear policy to ensure that children are not removed to a situation where they may be unsafe."
Canadian border agents suspect some of the unaccompanied minors may have been smuggled here by their parents or are victims of human trafficking rings.
As a result, Canada Border Services Agency officials are being pushed to develop country profiles to provide up-to-date data on the main child-refugee producing countries. And foreign embassies and international organizations in the worst countries are also being urged to do more in their country-assessment reports.
www.lfpress.caThe Canadian Council for Refugees is concerned about the detention of some child refugees and want a national policy on how they should be treated on arrival here.
The most recent Canadian study into child claimants was prepared by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) examining data from 1999 to 2002. It shows there were 100,000 separated children in Western Europe and as many as 20,000 of them file asylum claims yearly in Europe and North America.
The study shows 368 unaccompanied minors, under the age of 17, filed refugee claims in Canada in 1999 compared to 674 in 2000, 817 in 2001 and 1,830 in 2002. Not all the claims were reported.
Another study, that claims to have used federal immigration department data, estimated that 1,087 unaccompanied minors and 1,683 separated children arrived in Canada from 2000 to 2004.
www.torontosun.conThe circumstances of unaccompanied minors are barely addressed by theHouston report on asylum seekers.
There is one reference to "vulnerable persons". This is in the context of transferring those with "special needs" or who are "highly vulnerable" to Australia rather than being left in Nauru or PNG.
The report does not give examples or definitions of what "special needs" are or who qualifies as "highly vulnerable". In one sense, this is better than a restrictive definition as it provides some flexibility for cases of people who may need special services which are unlikely to be available in Nauru or PNG.
In an attachment, the authors recommend that the Immigration (Guardianship of Children) Act 1946 be amended to provide "that the Minister's consent is not required for a non-citizen child to be taken from Australia to another location for the purpose of processing their asylum claims".
The expert panel state that "oversight of arrangements for minors" would be possible through the Parliament's power to disallow the instrument designating a country as a regional processing location.
It is surprising that the expert panel did not directly address this very important issue in the report at all, and restricted comment to two paragraphs in attachment 10.
Currently, the Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen, is the legal guardian for unaccompanied minors under the Immigration Act (Guardianship of Children) 1946. It is possible for the minister to delegate the guardianship role to state or territory ministers who have responsibility for welfare matters.
A significant minority of unauthorised arrivals over the past five years have been minors. There have been practical issues such as accurately determining the age for unaccompanied minors, especially when the minor in question does not know their true age. This is not uncommon among some communities such as Afghans from regional areas where birthdates are not recorded and a different calendar is used.
Not surprisingly, the department has sought to find ways of caring for minors outside of detention, especially given the well-known damaging effects of prolonged detention on asylum seekers. So when the "Malaysian Plan" was agreed in 2011, one of the concerns of advocates was whether minors would be forcibly returned to Malaysia and who would care for them there. This featured in the M70 case in the High Court which effectively ruled out the plan.
The second plaintiff in that case, M106, was a minor. M106 argued that they could not be removed to Malaysia unless their guardian, the minister, had given consent in writing. Such a decision is reviewable under the Administrative Decisions Judicial Review Act 1977 (ADJR Act). The ADJR Act requires written reasons be given and such reasons are reviewable in the Federal Court. It is likely that matters such as "the best interests of the child" and possible issues under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Childwould arise in such proceedings.
The High Court held that as no written consent had been given, M106 could not be removed, apart from the fact that the "Malaysian Plan" declaration by the minister was found to be made in contravention of the human rights protections set out in the Migration Act.
Hence the need to amend the Immigration (Guardianship of Children) Act to enable the forced removal of minors to Nauru, or wherever they would be sent. Otherwise each minor would need a written consent by the minister, and such consent would be reviewable in the Federal Court on grounds wider than those that apply to judicial review of Migration Act decisions.
Given the major significance of a recommendation that minors be stripped of protection under the Guardianship of Children Act, it is astounding that the expert panel did not address this issue and made a sweeping recommendation to abolish the existing protections.
This has not featured in the political debate very much.
Sadly the current political environment seems unlikely to deal with the "best interests of minors" in the rush to implement the Panel's 22 recommendations. An issue which affects basic human rights for minors deserves more serious and informed debate.
theconversation.edu.auPar Marc Leplongeon
Chaque année, des mineurs passent seuls la frontière française et sont pris en charge par les départements. Mais leur budget explose...
Les juges pour enfants n'en peuvent plus du bricolage. Ils réclament une solution nationale pour gérer les quatre mille à six mille mineurs non accompagnés qui vivent en France métropolitaine. Ils viennent d'Afrique, d'Inde ou encore d'Europe de l'Est, certains ont fui leur pays pour échapper aux violences des révolutions arabes. D'autres sont "mandatés" pour réussir en France et aider financièrement leur famille.
"Les jeunes viennent souvent avec des projets précis d'insertion, ils ne sont pas là par hasard", confie Évelyne Monpierre, juge pour enfants et membre de l'Association française des magistrats de la jeunesse et de la famille (AFMJF). Lorsqu'ils arrivent sur le territoire, les enfants étrangers sont en situation irrégulière. Leur minorité les rend cependant inexpulsables. Les autorités publiques, qu'elles le veuillent ou non, doivent donc composer avec le phénomène. "Lorsqu'ils arrivent devant le juge, nous pouvons prendre une ordonnance de placement provisoire en attendant que leur situation s'éclaircisse", poursuit la magistrate. Problème : qui finance cette prise en charge des jeunes ? Pas de bricolage sur le dos des enfants
"L'État considère que ces enfants relèvent de l'Aide sociale à l'enfance (Ase), et donc des départements. Les conseils généraux, eux, affirment que cela relève de la politique migratoire, et donc de l'État", résume Clément Prunières, de l'Assemblée des départements de France. Les départements consacreraient en effet plus de 200 millions d'euros par an à la prise en charge de ces enfants, 45 millions en 2011 pour la seule Seine-Saint Denis. À tel point que, fin 2011, Claude Bartolone, alors président du conseil général, avait entamé un véritable bras de fer avec l'État, refusant de prendre en charge plus de mineurs. L'Ille-et-Vilaine est, elle aussi, particulièrement touchée et tire la sonnette d'alarme : s'occuper des mineurs non accompagnés peut représenter jusqu'à 15 % de son budget.
L'ancien ministre de la Justice Michel Mercier s'était saisi de ce dossier épineux. "Il a simplement décidé de répartir les enfants dans plusieurs départements. Il soulage ainsi certains conseils généraux, comme la Seine-Saint-Denis, qui faisaient face à des flux très importants", explique Jean-Pierre Rosenczveig, président du Bureau international des droits de l'enfant (BIDE) et du tribunal pour enfants de Bobigny. "Mais aucune politique globale n'est ressortie de l'ouverture du dossier, et on a continué à traiter les enfants comme des paquets", ajoute-t-il. Sur son blog, le magistrat dénonce ce statu quo qui tend, selon lui, à "éviter de faire un appel d'air avec un dispositif d'accueil trop performant"
"Limiter les dégâts"
"Que des mineurs non accompagnés entrent sur le territoire, c'est un fait. Mais après, il faut assurer le service après-vente", s'insurge Jean-Pierre Rosenczveig. "Pour une fois, on se retrouve avec un gouvernement et des départements du même bord politique... Ils devraient pouvoir s'entendre." Le président du BIDE précise la forme que l'accord pourrait prendre : "Tant que la situation juridique de l'enfant n'est pas clarifiée, c'est l'État qui paie. Lorsque l'enfant est régularisé, les conseils généraux le prennent en charge." Une proposition qui, d'après lui, permettrait de "limiter les dégâts".
Jean-Pierre Rosenczveig se dit prêt à endosser le "rôle d'arbitre" entre conseils généraux et État. Encore faut-il que Christiane Taubira, qui a mis sur la table le dossier de la justice des enfants, ait réellement l'intention de se pencher sur ce dossier.
Questa, in ordine di numero, la provenienza dei minori accolti: 16.540 da Russia e Paesi dell'Europa dell'Est (92,8% del totale); 899 dall'area dei Balcani (5%), 737 dei quali dalla Bosnia-Erzegovina; 333 dall'Africa (1,9%); 42, per la prima volta, dal Giappone; 9 dal Brasile (America Latina).
I numeri si trovano nel rapporto 'Minori stranieri - Accoglienza temporanea 2011' pubblicato dal Comitato, l'organismo interistituzionale previsto dal Testo unico sull'immigrazione (decreto legislativo 25 luglio 1998, n.286, articolo 33) che si occupa, tra le altre cose, di accertare lostatus di minore non accompagnato e di approvare i programmi solidaristici di accoglienza temporanea.
Una forma di solidarietà sentita in Italia, stando ai 1104 progetti presentati al Comitato nel 2011 da 214 soggetti proponenti concentrati (per il 76% dei programmi) soprattutto nei piccoli comuni, a indicare che l'accoglienza di questo tipo è gestita molto spesso dalle comunità locali.
La distribuzione geografica dei proponenti sul territorio nazionale è invece omogenea, anche se si registra un picco in Lombardia (42, pari al 20% del totale).
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