CONFIDENTIAL: DO NOT CIRCULATE. EMBARGOED TO 00.01 GMT 16 JUNE 2016 Neither safe nor sound: Unaccompanied children on the coastline of the English Channel and the North Sea By: Alexandre Le Clève Evangeline Masson-Diez Olivier Peyroux NB: For confidentiality purposes, we only provide the nationalities and ages of the children encountered. FOREWORD ..............................................................................................................................4 Definitions...................................................................................................................................5 Executive summary.....................................................................................................................5 Introduction...............................................................................................................................10 Methodology and implementation..........................................................................................13 Difficulties and limitations of the study...................................................................................14 1. Exposure to hazards and vulnerability of unaccompanied children in France ....................16 1.1. Inhumane and degrading living conditions......................................................................16 1.2. Absence of schooling .....................................................................................................17 1.3. Mental health..................................................................................................................19 1.4. Physical violence............................................................................................................20 1.5. Sexual violence ..............................................................................................................22 1.6. Economy ........................................................................................................................22 2. Who are the unaccompanied children?..............................................................................24 Study sample.....................................................................................................................24 2.1. Afghan unaccompanied children.....................................................................................25 Distribution and numbers ...................................................................................................25 Reasons for leaving home among children ........................................................................25 Migration strategies involving unaccompanied children......................................................26 Profiles ..............................................................................................................................27 Risk associated with the route ...........................................................................................27 Forms of influence and specific risks among Afghan unaccompanied children ..................28 Distribution and passage to the United Kingdom................................................................29 2.2. Syrian unaccompanied children......................................................................................31 The route ...........................................................................................................................31 Young people are less affected by the risk of exploitation..................................................32 2.3. Egyptian unaccompanied children..................................................................................33 The route ...........................................................................................................................33 1 CONFIDENTIAL: DO NOT CIRCULATE. EMBARGOED TO 00.01 GMT 16 JUNE 2016 Two profiles of Egyptian children .......................................................................................34 Young people are frightened and controlled by traffickers..................................................35 2.4. Eritrean and Ethiopian unaccompanied children.............................................................37 Migration primarily motivated by political persecution.........................................................37 A journey of rape and violence...........................................................................................38 A vague plan to head for the United Kingdom....................................................................39 Exploitation of the most vulnerable in France.....................................................................39 2.5. Vietnamese unaccompanied children .............................................................................42 Regions of origin................................................................................................................42 The migratory route ...........................................................................................................43 Passage.............................................................................................................................43 A highly organised network................................................................................................43 A hard-to-establish connection and bond of trust ...............................................................44 2.6. Kurdish unaccompanied children from Iraq and Iran.......................................................44 Distribution and numbers ...................................................................................................44 Reason for the departure of Iraqi Kurdish unaccompanied children ...................................45 Profile of Iraqi Kurdish unaccompanied children ................................................................47 Reason for the departure of the Iranian Kurdish children ...................................................48 Profile of the Iranian and Iranian Kurdish children..............................................................48 Risk associated with the route ...........................................................................................48 Passage between France and the United Kingdom ...........................................................49 Form of influence and specific risks among Kurdish Iraqi children .....................................50 2.7 Other nationalities........................................................................................................51 Sudanese unaccompanied children ...................................................................................51 Bedoon Kuwaiti unaccompanied children...........................................................................54 Albanian unaccompanied children .....................................................................................55 2.7 Care in the United Kingdom: The attraction and the reality..............................................56 Support for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and child victims of trafficking – directly funded by Home Office ..........................................................................................56 Education...........................................................................................................................56 Applications for asylum and risk of return...........................................................................56 Family reunion once in the UK ...........................................................................................57 Risks of trafficking..............................................................................................................57 3. The legal framework .............................................................................................................57 3.1 The legal framework for child protection ..........................................................................57 International texts ..............................................................................................................57 Administrative protection for unaccompanied children .......................................................58 The reporting of situations of danger in the Departmental Council, leader in child protection, and the competence of the actors......................................................................................59 The relevant actors with whom to share concerns about children at risk............................59 Judicial protection and unaccompanied children................................................................59 A specific protocol for unaccompanied children at a national level.....................................60 3.2. Family reunification.........................................................................................................60 The restrictive field of the Dublin Regulation ......................................................................61 A possible infringement of family life ..................................................................................62 The organisation of family reunification..............................................................................62 2 CONFIDENTIAL: DO NOT CIRCULATE. EMBARGOED TO 00.01 GMT 16 JUNE 2016 4. Answers and actors ..............................................................................................................63 4.1 The protocols for