Protecting Migrant Children in a Freedom of Movement AreaTransnational monitoring of return procedures involving Romanian and Bulgarian migrant children in Greece and France
This research looks at the intra EU migration of Romanian and Bulgarian children to France and Greece in situations of vulnerability.
It focuses on the return procedures that are used by countries and assesses the latter in the light of the principle of the best interests of the Child as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which all EU Member States have adhered. Although the research faced many limitations which have consequences for the accuracy of its findings, the present research conclusions and recommendations remain based on a 16-month data collection process which allowed the gathering of information on 97 individual cases of children for whom the authorities have or should have found durable solutions.
The main recommendation of the research proposes the creation of a standardised procedure applicable in the 27 Member States that would foster internal and transnational coordination in order to properly assess the situation of children and find durable solutions that have been jointly designed with the children concerned, thereby leaving an important space for their participation.
As of today, the only certainty regarding the situation of EU migrant children is that they remain “suspended” between two necessities that Member States have not yet been able to reconcile: asearch for opportunities in migration and a fundamental right to be protected.
http://tdh-childprotection.org
