land of men Deutschland e. V.
Osnabruck (ots)
As part of an alliance of more than 50 organizations demands the children’s rights organization terre des hommes from the federal government abandoning their plans to reform the Common European Asylum System. With a view to the forthcoming meeting of EU interior ministers on June 8, the alliance is appealing to the federal government to live up to its humanitarian responsibility and to take its own coalition agreement seriously. There must be no compromises at the expense of the protection and rights of refugee children and young people.
Around the 30th anniversary of the 1993 asylum compromise, the sharpest cut to date in German asylum law, the federal government, together with the other European member states, is preparing a similar cut in European asylum law. Together with more than 50 other organizations, terre des hommes firmly rejects the German position on the reform of the so-called Common European Asylum System (CEAS), which was agreed in the government at the end of April. The reform plans would entail detention camps at the EU’s external borders and could lead to a shift away from substantive protection tests for refugees in the EU. From a children’s rights perspective, the reform proposals also violate children’s well-being and fundamental rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“It is unacceptable that the federal government is planning to go along with the path of depriving refugees of their rights in the EU, especially children and young people. If the European interior ministers come to an agreement on June 8th, asylum applications from refugee children and young people in widely rejected as inadmissible because they can be granted a minimum of protection on paper in a non-European country.This is in blatant contradiction to children’s and human rights, but also to the commitment of the Federal Government to the content of every asylum application in the EU In the worst case, it means withdrawing from refugee protection in the EU, comparable to the German asylum compromise of 1993,” explained Sophia Eckert, an expert on migration and flight at terre des hommes.
The reform proposals also lack a systematic and practically enforceable safeguarding of children’s rights. For example, guardianship and legal assistance are not guaranteed for unaccompanied minors from day one. In the so-called “screening”, which sets the course for an accelerated procedure at the border or a normal procedure, minors will also be housed in detention camps or similar facilities. Age assessments would also often take place under prison or prison-like conditions, and there is no way to take action against erroneous age assessments. However, without adequate means of redress, the rights of children and young people cannot be protected and their well-being cannot be ensured.
“From a children’s rights perspective, the reform proposals are devastating. Even if minors only spend a few days in detention, as is likely in the screening, this time can feel like months for them due to their intense sense of time – with all the physical and psychological consequences that imprisonment for children has The detention of minors for migration control violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This must be taken into account in a European asylum law reform,” explained Sophia Eckert. “At least the federal government wants to work at EU level to exempt minors from the accelerated asylum procedures in detention camps at the border, which can last up to twelve weeks. They must not give in on this point in Brussels under any circumstances. Haggling about arbitrary age limits is children’s rights untenable, because the Convention on the Rights of the Child protects everyone up to the age of 18.”
Similar to the asylum compromise of 1993 in Germany, the tightening of European asylum laws arises in a climate of growing right-wing populist pressure in the EU. At the same time, terre des hommes and the European partner organizations are observing an increasing willingness to use violence and violate the rights of refugee children and minors. Like one joint statement by terre des hommes and Equal Rights Beyond Borders, minors are already being imprisoned on the Greek island of Kos and their social, cultural and economic rights are being severely violated. In its appeal, terre des hommes, together with many other organisations, calls on the federal government to resolutely oppose this pressure and the populist agitation against refugees. This also means that when there is a European agreement on the asylum system, there must be no compromises at the expense of the basic rights of refugee children and young people. Human rights and safeguarding the welfare of children must finally determine the European discourse again. We demand: child welfare instead of camp imprisonment!
Statement of the Alliance of Non-Governmental Organizations
Press contact:
Sophia Eckert, Terre des Hommes, [email protected]; Such. 01 51 / 56 31 79 10
Original content by: terre des hommes Deutschland e. V., transmitted by news aktuell
