Inquiry into treatment of young asylum-seekers

By David Cronin

Date: 09/02/06

A probe into the treatment of child and teenage asylum-seekers has been launched by the European Commission.

Officials in the Commission's directorate-general for justice, freedom and security are examining how a 2003 EU directive on minimum standards for the reception of asylum-seekers is being implemented by member state governments.

The officials say that the law requires national authorities to maintain family unity "as far as possible" when dealing with asylum-seekers and to have the best interest of children as their "primary consideration".

The Commission has received reports of children being left behind to fend for themselves after their parents and siblings have been deported.

The reports include that of a case in Scotland, in which a family was deported, without the 16-year-old son who was at the time staying with friends in London.

Alyn Smith, an MEP with the Scottish National Party who has raised the case with the Commission, said: "The UK government is carrying out an abhorrent asylum policy at the moment. They are falling short of the standards they have signed up to."

Other problems pinpointed by Smith include the detention of child asylum-seekers and the practice of dawn raids prior to deportations. In dawn raids, parents are hand-cuffed and their children removed, often by large numbers of police officers, Smith added.

The deadline for placing the 2003 directive on national statute books was February 2005.

A British diplomat said that the UK was actively implementing it and has not been told of any specific problems with its implementation by the Commission.

But Richard Williams from the European Council on Refugees and Exile, an umbrella group for organisations working with asylum-seekers, said it was vital that the Commission followed closely whether the directive was being adhered to. "This is an enormous job and we know that member states are not always co-operative," he added.

A 2005 EU directive on minimum standards for granting and withdrawing refugee status says that nobody should be detained for the sole reason that he or she is seeking asylum. This directive has to be transposed in member states by December 2007.

The Commission also recommended last year that harmonised EU rules should be set for procedures used during deportations, including the permissable circumstances for coercive measures. The Council of Ministers has yet to begin debating that proposal in earnest.

Austria's EU presidency has pencilled in a discussion on this proposal for a meeting of EU justice and interior ministers scheduled for June.

The European Commission has launched a probe into the treatment of child and teenage asylum seekers.

European Council on Refugees and Exile http://www.ecre.org/

European Commission: DG Justice, Freedom and Security: Fact Sheet: Asylum: Offering protection for the most vulnerable http://ec.europa.eu/comm/justice_home/key_issues/asylum/asylum_270804_en.pdf

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