Question 24708 — children

Summary

Ms Florence Provendier questions the Minister of the Interior about the State's support for unaccompanied minors. 30 years ago, on November 20, 1989, France signed, with 194 other countries, the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). As such, France must protect and fully recognize the fundamental rights inherent to any person under the age of 18 present on its territory. The instability and political, social and economic insecurity in certain countries around the world have pushed children onto migration routes, and according to the judicial protection of youth, the number of unaccompanied minors in France has more than doubled, going from 8,000 in 2016 to 17,922 in 2018. It is the departmental child welfare services which are responsible for welcoming and protecting these children since their minority is proven, which requires control at the prefecture. Article 22 of the CRC stipulates that “States parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure that a child who seeks refugee status or who is considered a refugee (), whether alone or accompanied (), benefits from the protection and humanitarian assistance required to enable him or her to enjoy the rights”. However, prefectural and departmental services are overloaded and struggle to find solutions for these children. The duration of minority assessment procedures is long and during this time, the child is often left to his or her own devices. On November 6, 2019, an interministerial committee on immigration and integration announced 20 measures to improve immigration and asylum policy. One of the measures aims to adjust our “unaccompanied minors” system in three directions: fighting against multiple assessments, make the territorial distribution of reception more equitable, facilitate the admission to residence of unaccompanied minors who have become adults and engaged in a professional career. In view of these announcements, she would like to know the measures that the Government will implement to guarantee all unaccompanied minors protection and respect for their rights upon their arrival in France.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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