Two students of Law take part in a report submitted to the ONU about the situation of unaccompanied foreign children in Spain

Students Anna Grañana and Pau Chavarria took part in the study as part of their practical lessons.
Students Anna Grañana and Pau Chavarria took part in the study as part of their practical lessons.
Academic
(15/03/2018)

A study warns about situations some unaccompanied children face when getting to Spain and about the treatment of public Administrations, which in many cases involves an infringement of principles and rights stated in the Convention on Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol. The report, which was submitted to the United Nationsʼ Committee on the Rights of the Child, which has been written by Noves Vides Association, Raíces Foundation, and two students of the Faculty of Law of the University of Barcelona, Pau Chavarria and Anna Grañana, have collaborated in it. This participation results from the collaborative activity carried out within the project dret al Dret of the Faculty of Law of the UB, and is part of the extracurricular practical lessons of both students in the entity Noves Vies and in the law firm Uría Menéndez.

 

Students Anna Grañana and Pau Chavarria took part in the study as part of their practical lessons.
Students Anna Grañana and Pau Chavarria took part in the study as part of their practical lessons.
Academic
15/03/2018

A study warns about situations some unaccompanied children face when getting to Spain and about the treatment of public Administrations, which in many cases involves an infringement of principles and rights stated in the Convention on Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol. The report, which was submitted to the United Nationsʼ Committee on the Rights of the Child, which has been written by Noves Vides Association, Raíces Foundation, and two students of the Faculty of Law of the University of Barcelona, Pau Chavarria and Anna Grañana, have collaborated in it. This participation results from the collaborative activity carried out within the project dret al Dret of the Faculty of Law of the UB, and is part of the extracurricular practical lessons of both students in the entity Noves Vies and in the law firm Uría Menéndez.

 

Infringement of basic rights

During 2017, 1,489 adolescents arrived in Catalonia without identity support and were forced to leave their countries, mainly due terrorism, war and natural disasters, starting a long and hard migration process from which they result extremely vulnerable and become easy victims of organized crime, suffering from many abuses and labour and/or sexual exploitation.

This report submitted to the United Nations by Noves Vies Association and Raíces Foundation, two social organizations that defend and promote the rights and social integration of several groups, specially unaccompanied foreign children, is an alternative text to the fifth and sixth reports of the Convention on the Rights of the Child that Spain submitted on May 5, 2016. Both entities were invited to present the conclusions of their study in the headquarters of the United Nationsʼ Committee of the Rights of the Child in Geneva (Switzerland) in June 2017. The text was presented together with audiovisual material including the reality these youngsters live.

The document notes that when these teenagers arrive in Spain, they do not receive any attention and the process of integration to the children protection system is delayed. Also, in some cases, having a legal passport is not a valid option and they have to undergo medical tests to determine their age, although it has been proved that these tests are not accurate. This means that, in some cases, these kids are excluded from the system of protection of children and sometimes adolescents, and they even enter internment facilities (CIE).

Also, the report notes they are not given an independent legal representative, nor proper information on legal protection, and they do not have the chance to report any abuse, even in the welcoming centers. Moreover, the study reports the procrastination when obtaining the documents -such as work permissions, residence permission or getting the national identity card-, the lack of resources for their protection and to work on their specific needs regarding education or training, or the worrying situations that occur in Ceuta and Melilla.

Recommendations by the United Nations

As a response, the Committee on the Rights of the Child of the United Nations wrote the conclusions and recommendations for Spain regarding several subjects that cause some uncertainty, among which are protection and care provided to unaccompanied foreign children.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child urges to protect these kids effectively, and adopted several recommendations that were written in the alternative report submitted as part of the project Dret al Dret of the UB. First, regarding the age determination tests, United Nations urge Spain to establish a protocol for age determination using a multidisciplinary method, and states these tests have to be only carried out when in case of a real doubt on age: when there is not any kind of legal document, according to the Supreme Court law.

It also highlighted the lack or the lingering of assigning a legal representative to a child, or the lack of information that is given to the children and adolescents once they are identified in Spain. Another of the highlighted issues is the setting of centers for unaccompanied foreign children that are adapted to their needs, and the setting up of an effective report mechanism in protection centers for children and adolescents in order to report cases of abuse so that they can be investigated. Last, the human rights body recommended Spain to end with the “devolucions en calent” situations, regarding the condition of children.