La Strada Documentation Center

Returns at Any Cost: Spain's Push to Repatriate Unaccompanied Children in the Absence of Safeguards

Document number
1792
Date
2008
Title
Returns at Any Cost: Spain's Push to Repatriate Unaccompanied Children in the Absence of Safeguards
Author/publisher
Human Rights Watch
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Corporate social responsibility, Multi-stakeholder partnerships: Child Trafficking, Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, Family reunification, Guardian, Family Tracing, Age Assessment, Freedom from Detention, Interim Care, Integration, Adoption, Best Interests Principle, Child Victims of Trafficking, Separated Migrant Children, Unaccompanied minors, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Child protection systems,
Summary
This report identifies a fundamental flaw in Spain’s repatriation of unaccompaniedmigrant and refugee children: the government’s failure to provide children withindependent legal representation during repatriation procedures. This gap inprotection leaves children unable to challenge decisions that fundamentally affecttheir lives and may result in children sent back to situations where their well-being isat risk. Adult migrants, in contrast, receive free legal assistance from lawyers in adeportation procedure.
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