The regional government of the Canary Islands has once again raised concerns about overcrowding in the centers designated for unaccompanied minors in the Atlantic Ocean’s Spanish archipelago. Although the government claims to be working to resolve the issue, the federal government’s requested redistribution efforts are being stalled by political disputes amongst the leaders of different Spanish regions.
Yesterday, Alejandro Rivero Díaz, the councilor for Social Services, and Alfredo Gonçalves Ferreira, the mayor of Guía on Gran Canaria in the north, met with the director of a new home for unaccompanied children ages 0 to 15 that will open in the municipality.
These are “children who will integrate into this community through their schooling at local schools and participation in extracurricular activities,” the new center’s director stressed. “They are young people who will undoubtedly be greeted with the kindness and camaraderie that define Guía’s people,” he said.
As of December 31, 2023, Spain had 12,878 registered unaccompanied minors, with the Canary Islands hosting 4,700, or 36.5 percent of the total. However, only 192 minors had been transferred to other regions by August 2024.
A Very Different Group Amongst Migrants
According to a definition by the European Union’s Agency for Asylum, an unaccompanied minor is a minor who arrives on the territory of the (EU) Member States, unaccompanied by an adult responsible for him or her whether by law or by the practice of the Member State concerned, and for as long as he or she is not effectively taken into the care of such a person. This also includes a minor who is left unaccompanied after he or she has entered the territory of the Member States. This definition is based on the broader one, applied by various international organizations, like the United Nations.
Migrant children who are unaccompanied need special and suitable protection. Because of their age, distance from home, and lack of parental or caregiver support, they are particularly vulnerable. They face dangers and may have witnessed severe forms of violence, human trafficking, exploitation, and physical, psychological, and sexual abuse prior to or following their arrival in the EU. They run the risk of being shunned and enticed to engage in illegal or radical activities. As a particularly vulnerable group, unaccompanied children are more susceptible to environmental influences. Particularly vulnerable to forced and early marriages are unaccompanied girls, whose families may be struggling financially or may want to marry their daughters to shield them from additional sexual abuse.
Unaccompanied Minors in Europe: Who Exactly are They?
Despite the relatively low overall percentage of unaccompanied minors in EU+ nations, there were significant differences in trends at the national level. According to all first-time asylum applications, Bulgaria had the largest percentage of unaccompanied minor asylum applications in 2022 (17%), followed by Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands (12%), and Hungary (11%). These percentages imply that many unaccompanied minors entered EU+ nations through the Balkans.
Only 7% of unaccompanied minor applicants were female, compared to 93% of male applicants. Although they were somewhat more common among Somalian children, girls made up a minority among applicants of all nationalities. Seven percent of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in the EU were younger than 14 years old, 23% were between the ages of 14 and 15, and the majority (70%) were between the ages of 16 and 17.
Why and in What Respect Are They Most Vulnerable?
According to the 2023 report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, unaccompanied and accompanied minors are frequently treated very differently, with the latter receiving greater state guarantees of safety in addition to a nurturing family environment.
This report identifies a number of deficiencies in the way that each EU member state handles unaccompanied minors. The systematic border pushbacks that have been documented in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia, and Spain are the most prominent and pervasive deficiencies. The right to asylum and the ban on torture are also violated by the documented abuses, humiliations, and beatings frequently inflicted by police officers in Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, and Romania.
One of the main concerns is the illegal deprivation of children who are unaccompanied and seeking asylum. Despite being prohibited by both international and national law, EU states frequently permit the detention of unaccompanied minors. For instance, unaccompanied minors without a residency permit may be held in Belgium for a few weeks while their age is evaluated. Unaccompanied minors without proper documentation who were stopped by the Bulgarian Border Police in the past few years were frequently “attached” to any unrelated adult traveling with them, registered as “accompanied” to support their inclusion in the adult’s detention order, and were thus unlawfully detained. During the pandemic, Cyprus’s interior minister closed all of its reception centers and converted them into detention facilities. Despite national law’s prohibitions against detaining unaccompanied minors, detainees included both unaccompanied minors and families with children.
Delays in identifying minors, long wait times for the appointment of a legal guardian (who is frequently not appointed until an age assessment confirms that the minor is underage, as in Slovakia), and a lack of benefit of the doubt when it comes to classifying individuals as minors are the main barriers preventing unaccompanied children from receiving the protections and protections they are entitled to throughout Europe. These factors can result in a violation of the “presumption of minority” principle and their detention in hazardous “waiting zones” alongside adults, as is the case in France and the Czech Republic. In Poland, applicants are automatically regarded as adults when they refuse to participate in age tests.
As documented in Lithuania, Malta, and Slovenia, the report also highlights the pervasive lack of proper housing and organized care for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers, who are frequently housed in overcrowded reception centers with limited access to essential services. Particularly in France and Greece, children have even been made to sleep on the streets. As seen in France, Greece, Hungary, and Portugal, there is also a glaring lack of services aimed at ensuring the education and social integration of unaccompanied minors.
In 2023 in the European Union, 254 900 first-time asylum applicants were children, representing 24.3% of the total number of first-time asylum applicants. That year, unaccompanied minor applicants accounted for 17.0 % of the total number of first-time asylum applicants aged below 18.
