UNHCR’s Position Regarding the Detention of Refugee and Migrant Children in the Migration Context

The purpose of this note is to provide clarification about UNHCR’s position regarding the detention of children, unaccompanied, separated or in families for immigration-related purposes. The scope of this note includes refugee and asylum-seeking children as well as migrant children. UNHCR’s position on the detention of children in the immigration context is developed in the 2012 Guidelines on the Applicable Criteria and Standards relating to the Detention of Asylum-Seekers and Alternatives to Detention (Detention Guidelines). It has been reiterated and expanded in other recent policy papers on the issue, in particular in UNHCR’s Global Strategy Beyond Detention 2014-2019 (Global Strategy).