First and Foremost, a Child
The Child Rights Coalition, Eurochild member from Flanders, Belgium release a position paper calling for better policies for unaccompanied migrant children.
The paper by Kinderrechtencoalitie Vlaanderen highlights the systemic crisis Belgium has faced in recent years, marked by a significant increase in the number of young unaccompanied children. This surge strained the reception system, leading to a saturated network, a shortage of guardians, limited access to education, and a lack of future opportunities for many children.
While the government and related services have made considerable efforts to address these issues, many deeper, structural challenges remain. At the European level, initiatives like the new Migration Pact aim to address policy gaps, but these efforts also underscore the urgent need for sustainable and child-centred approaches in Belgium.
This paper underscores the importance of prioritising unaccompanied children’s rights and welfare in all policies, with a focus on long-term solutions and systemic reforms. It is based on existing literature, reports, and research, as well as extensive discussions with other organisations and experts. The findings and recommendations were presented to the Fedasil Youth Unit, the Agency for Growing Up, the Guardianship Service, and the Commissioner-General for Refugees and Stateless Persons. Finally, former unaccompanied children and their mentors also provided feedback on this position paper and their policy priorities.
Policy Recommendations:
- Ensure that every residency procedure is preceded by a multidisciplinary evaluation and determination of the child’s best interests, carried out in collaboration with the child. This process should prioritise forward-looking guidance in the broadest sense of the term. Assign an independent body to conduct these evaluations and manage the resulting information.
- Develop protocols for cooperation and information sharing between the Guardianship Service, the Agency for Growing Up, Fedasil, the CGRS, the Immigration Office (DVZ), and the independent body responsible for the evaluation and determination of the child’s best interests. Ensure these protocols respect confidentiality, participation, and the child’s informed consent.
- Facilitate connections between residency applications through the implementation of the above recommendation. Integrate the aspect of “victimhood of human trafficking” into special residency procedures.
- Investigate how the government can provide more legal opportunities for unaccompanied children who do not qualify for existing residency permits.
- Increase support for unaccompanied children to help reunite them with their families. Examine and remove procedural barriers to make family reunification applications more accessible for this group.
- Expand outreach and street-level initiatives to reach unaccompanied children who remain unregistered.
- Establish more accessible reception initiatives for unregistered unaccompanied children, focusing on forward-looking guidance and building trust.
- Increase the number of guardians employed under an employee status.
- Enable the Guardianship Service to invest more in the training and evaluation of guardians, with a stronger emphasis on their role as trusted figures. Ensure guardians can fully support unaccompanied children in all aspects of life, such as integration, education, finding work, and participating in leisure activities.
- Examine how to guarantee the fundamental rights of unaccompanied children at all times, even in situations where a guardian has not yet been assigned. Build on recent initiatives to ensure children can join a health insurance fund.
- Assign a (temporary) guardian to every identified unaccompanied child, even if their age is uncertain.
- Introduce a new procedure for determining the age of unaccompanied children whose minority status is in doubt. Ensure this process is multidisciplinary and independent of migration authorities.
- Extend the prohibition of detaining unaccompanied children to include those whose minority status is questioned.
- Adapt all procedures for unaccompanied children to suit this group. Minimise waiting times for procedure outcomes and ensure transparent communication about these timelines. Provide access to appropriate information on their rights, legal options, asylum and migration procedures, educational opportunities, and available support services. Adjust the duration of hearings to suit the needs of children.
- Enhance the training of all professionals who interact with this group. Improve both higher education curricula and workplace training. Strengthen knowledge of trauma sensitivity, cultural sensitivity, and children’s emotional development, as well as understanding the legal position of unaccompanied children and the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
