This workshop is hosted by the Missing Migrants: Identifying and Shaping Obligations for Protection (MIRO) project at the Centre for Fundamental Rights, Hertie School.
Thousands of unaccompanied minors – many of them asylum-seeking – go missing each year in Europe. While the exact numbers remain unknown, according to Lost in Europe, a not-for-profit journalism project, between 2018 and 2020, at least 18,000 unaccompanied minors disappeared in 12 European countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Italy and the United Kingdom. Many of the recorded disappearances are from State-run care facilities. For example, 10% of the unaccompanied minors that have been accommodated in hotels between June 2021 and January 2023 were reported missing in the United Kingdom. A significant number of unaccompanied migrant minors are disappearing from first reception facilities, as indicated by data from the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency; in certain countries, this figure rises to 80%.
While there are various international mechanisms seeking to support to search for missing and forcibly disappeared persons (such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, International Committee of Missing Persons), cases concerning unaccompanied migrant children that disappear from care facilities are rarely – if ever – brought to their attention. The Missing Migrant Project of the International Organization for Migration also does not include such children among the cases recorded, because of the adopted methodology. The rare consideration of this issue by international bodies dealing with missing and forcibly disappeared persons might stem from the fact that it is usually the family members - who are seeking to learn the fate and whereabouts of their disappeared loved ones - that turn to these bodies. When unaccompanied migrant children disappear from care facilities because they leave voluntarily, families will not bring the fact to the attention of authorities. At the same time, the authorities are still under an obligation to search for every minor that has disappeared. It might however not be in the best interest of the child to be found and brought back to the care facility – in particular for minors close to reaching adulthood, who could be deported. While many minors certainly leave voluntarily, others might be victims of trafficking or enforced disappearances. As such, it must also be considered that the reporting of disappearances of unaccompanied migrant minors is less likely, due to possible factors such as the undocumented status of families, language barriers, or the event happening in a country other than their current residence.
By gathering both scholars and practitioners, this one-day workshop aims at discussing viable solutions to the lack of systematic reporting of missing or disappeared unaccompanied migrant children in Europe and debate how international mechanisms could be more engaged. Looking specifically at the international instruments developed for enforced disappearances (e.g. UN’s ‘Guiding principles for the search for disappeared persons’), the workshop will discuss whether – and how – these can be useful in searching for unaccompanied migrant minors disappeared from care facilities, bearing in mind the need to protect the best interest of the children.
The workshop will discuss the following questions:
- How can unaccompanied migrant children missing from care facilities be legally qualified? Are they missing persons, forcibly disappeared persons and/or victims of trafficking?
- Do the States who initially place unaccompanied migrant children in care facilities have obligations in this regard, including the obligation to act with due diligence and report missing children and activate national and international search mechanisms?
- What are the implications of the application of the principle of the best interests of the children vis-à-vis States‘ obligations (especially in terms of prevention, search and investigation) concerning disappeared unaccompanied missing migrants?
- How could existing international mechanisms be best used or co-operate to address this widespread, but underreported phenomenon?
Participation in this workshop is through invitation only.
This workshop is hosted by the Missing Migrants: Identifying and Shaping Obligations for Protection (MIRO) project at the Centre for Fundamental Rights, Hertie School. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101026079.
Workshop organiser:
Grażyna Baranowska, Hertie School, Centre for Fundamental Rights
