In the Best Interests of the Child? Protecting UASC from the Middle East in France

A significant number of unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) have arrived in France in recent years, including many who have travelled from and through the Middle East. France Terre d'Asile, a French asylum association, reports having supported 1,887 UASC between January and 15 October 2017, up from 1,422 in the whole of 2016. Along with other refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants, many UASC have found their way to northwest France in the hope of moving onward to the United Kingdom (UK). As of March 2016, an estimated 500 UASC were living in seven different sites in northwest France, according to a UNICEF report. While the refugees and other migrants in France originate from a wide range of countries, from Eritrea to Vietnam, significant numbers are from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria. They have journeyed across multiple countries, often for several months, to reach this pocket of France.

A constant feature of the journeys of children moving along the eastern Mediterranean route has been a lack of specific protection support. Having fled protection risks at home, many find scarcely better protection en route, whether in countries of first asylum or as they continue through the Balkans towards Western Europe. MMP research in Jordan and Lebanon, for example, has shown how UASC refugees and migrants are exposed to risks of arrest and detention at the hands of immigration authorities, which can impede their access to basic services and adequate support. A lack of firewalls (or separation between immigration authorities and child protection services is a recurrent issue along migration routes from the Middle East to Europe, as UASC received by child protection systems can find themselves exposed to immigration authorities. As this paper argues, such protection concerns do not end on arrival in France, where recent policy shifts are increasingly prioritising immigration imperatives at the expense of children s best interests.