Committee Report on the situation of unaccompanied minors in the EU, by ALDE MEP Nathalie Griesbeck, adopted by the European Parliament. The main message of the report is that the situation of unaccompanied minors arriving in the EU needs to be tackled with concrete and targeted measures and in the best interest of the child.

General recommendations:

– Child protection, rather than immigration policies, must be the leading principle for Member States and the European Union when dealing with them, thus respecting the core principle of the child’s best interests;

– the best interests of the child must take priority over any other consideration in any act taken with regard to them, as enshrined in provisions and case-law;

– stop the existing lacunae in the protection of unaccompanied minors in the European Union;

– the need of a coherent response of the EU and Member States to protect unaccompanied minors, with full respect for their fundamental rights;

– strengthening the status of ‘legal guardian’ in the EU and setting up a monitoring plan for the reintegration of minors in countries of origin;

– compilation of a handbook by the Commission on the different legal bases concerning unaccompanied minors for the use of Member States and practitioners;

– improvement of the collection of statistics on unaccompanied minors, to enhance comparability of statistics collecting across Member States;

– EU and the Member States should step up cooperation with third countries of origin and transit concerning unaccompanied minors in a series of fields, such as the care of minors but also the prevention of their exploitation;

– prevent and combat trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims;

– secure adequate long-term funding for programmes aiming at the identification of unaccompanied minors, adequate reception, protection, the appointment of legal guardians, family tracing, resettlement, reintegration and the training of border guards and authorities.