The EU's target-driven and draconian deportation policy towards asylum seekers and undocumented migrant workers has a shocking but little heeded impact on minors, whether the children of asylum-seeking families, separated/unaccompanied minors seeking refuge or the children of sans papiers. The detention of children whose only crime is their parentage is now commonplace across Europe and often in contravention of international law. The harm done to children, as documented here, is incalculable.
A. Sivanandan, `Foreword' to They are Children Too: a study of Europe's deportation policies by Liz Fekete (London, IRR, 2007). The report examines some 150 cases concerning the treatment of foreign children in Europe, whether children of asylum-seeking families, separated/unaccompanied minors seeking asylum or the children of sans papiers. It covers abuses over arrest, detention, deportation processes and the forcing of families into destititution.
2.
EU Council Directive 2004/83/EC on Minimum Standards for Determining the Status of Those Needing International Protection (Qualification Directive). Implemented in the UK by regulations on 9 October 2006.
3.
Commission for Social Care Inspection , `Safeguarding children: the second joint chief inspectors' report on arrangements to safeguard children' (Newcastle, July 2005).
4.
Society Guardian (12 July 2006).
5.
Unhcr , `Reception standards for asylum seekers in the European Union' (Geneva, 2000 ).
6.
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights , `Review of states. procedures and practices relating to detention of asylum seekers ' (New York, 2002). Available from <http://idcoalition.org/portal/downloads/reports/LCHR%20Country%20Review.pdf> .
7.
PICUM Newsletter (December 2006).
8.
UNHCR Baltic and Nordic Headlines (29 March 2006).
9.
NRK (31 October 2006).
10.
Terry Smith , Hearing the Voices of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors and Refugees - a look at policy and practice within participating countries of the above EU-project (Brighton, European Social Network, 2005).
11.
Terre des Hommes Switzerland, press release (21 December 2005).
12.
Correspondence with Martine Lachat, Terre des Hommes.
13.
Alvaro Gil-Robles, Commissioner for Human Rights , `Report on ... human rights in France following his visit from 5 to 21 September 2005' (Strasbourg, Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, 15 February 2006).
14.
NCADC News Service , 6 February 2006, <http://www.ncadc.org.uk/>.
15.
Fréderique Mawet , `Centres fermés pour étrangers: etat des lieux ' (Brussels, CIRÉ, 2006).
16.
Migration News Sheet (March 2005).
17.
PICUM Newsletter (March 2005); Press Times (15 December 2006); Athens News (11 March 2005).
18.
Unhcr , `Trends in separated and unaccompanied children seeking asylum in industrialized countries, 2001-2003 ' (Geneva, 2004).
19.
Save the Children, `Separated children coming to western Europe '(London, 2000).
20.
See Jacqueline Bhabha and Nadine Finch, Seeking Asylum Alone: unaccompanied and separated children and refugee protection in the UK (Human Rights at Harvard, 2006), @#x3C;www.humanrights.harvard.edu.>; Lucy Ward, `Not every child matters', Guardian (22 January 2007).
21.
Melanie McFadyean , `A lapse of humanity', Guardian (16 November 2006).
Amnesty International , `Italy: invisible children - the human rights of migrant and asylum-seeking minors detained upon arrival at the maritime border in Italy', (London, 2006).
25.
Amnesty International , World Report (London, 2006).
26.
Migration News Sheet (May 2006).
27.
PICUM Newsletter (December 2005).
28.
Morocco Times (23 August 2006).
29.
Fréderique Mawet , 'Centres fermés pour étrangers', op.cit.
30.
Migration News Sheet (November 2006).
31.
Alvaro Gil-Robles, op. cit.
32.
Association Nationale d'Assistance auxFrontières pour les Étrangers, press release (30 June 2005).
33.
Artikel 14 (No. 4, 2005).
34.
Migration News Sheet (December 2006).
35.
As cited by Bhabha and Finch, op.cit.
36.
Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture news service (17 May 2006),<http://www.torturecare.org.uk/> .
37.
Migration News Sheet (July 2006).
38.
Society Guardian (12 July 2006).
39.
Refugee Council in Yorkshire and Humberside press release (28 June 2006).
40.
PICUM Newsletter (August 2005, September 2005); Le Nouvel Observateur (28 July 2005, 3, 11 August 2005) , <http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/>.
41.
BBC News Online (27 July 2005), <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk>.
42.
No Place for a Child , `Joanna's story', <www.noplaceforachild.org/jstory.htm>.
43.
Mina Fazel and Derrick Silove , `Detention of refugees', British Medical Journal (Vol. 332, no. 7536, 2006).
44.
Fréderique Mawet, `Centres fermés pour étrangers', op.cit.
45.
Bianca Brigitte Bonomi , `Parents on hunger strike strengthen calls to end child detention', IRR News (27 July 2006), <http://www.irr.org.uk>.
46.
Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture news service, <http:// www.torturecare.org.uk/>.
47.
BBC News Online (25 July 2006), <http://news.bbc.co.uk>.
48.
BBC News Online (10 April 2006), <http://news.bbc.co.uk>.
49.
Urban News (20 June 2006) as cited in UNHCR Baltic and Nordic Headlines.
