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Platform: The best interests of the child first!

We want all children who have fled their native country to be granted the right to apply for asylum, a legally secure asylum process and humane reception arrangements in which their human rights are respected. Here we refer in particular to every child’s inherent right to life, health, a decent standard of living, education, and to be heard. The principle of the best interests of the child should be analyzed and taken into account in all decisions that concern the child. We want Sweden to honour its commitments under the UN Convention on the rights of the Child (CRC), to respect the rights of children, protect children from abuse and ensure their rights. The Convention on the Rights of the Child and the principle of the best interests of the Child must always carry greater weight than the stipulations in the Dublin II Regulation on the first country of asylum.

Background

The Dublin II Regulation is a European Union Law that determines the State responsible for examining applications for asylum. Normally, the Member State where the child has applied for asylum is responsible for the examination. This means that a person who travels on to Sweden or another EU-state will not have his or her reasons for asylum examined in that country, but will be sent back to the first country of asylum. In the regulation there is, however, room for exception, whereby the countries can assume the responsibility for examining an asylum application. The starting point for the Dublin II Regulation is that all EU Member States have an equivalent asylum procedure and reception of refugees. No one claims that this is the reality today.

Asylum applicants give evidence of inhuman living conditions in several EU-states, conditions which have left them no choice but to flee a second time. Their stories vary, but recurring accounts tell of how they have been denied the right to apply for asylum; have lived without roof over their heads; have been locked-up for extended periods of time under prison-like conditions; and have been subjected to abusive treatment and violence at the hands of people in authority. This is in breach of several international agreements. The abuse leads to serious consequences for asylum applicants in general and for children in particular.

Transfers of children to conditions such as those described are contrary to the commitments Sweden has made by ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Children. The implementation of the Dublin II Regulation does not consider the best interests of the child and means in practice that children, who have already experienced war, persecution and other difficult conditions, are being exposed to further trauma. This is the case when they are sent to unsafe living conditions and are uprooted from the place where they have created a social context.

We argue that the Government and Migration Board have a responsibility for all children who have come to Sweden for protection. This responsibility applies both to children who arrive unaccompanied and to those who arrive with their families. The situation is urgent, but there is scope to act, both politically and on the part of the Migration Board.

We therefore demand

That children should be exempted from the stipulations in the Dublin II Regulation, unless the following can be guaranteed if they are transferred to their first country of asylum:

• a warm and safe place to live
• safe schooling
• health and sick care
• food and economic security
• protection from violence and abuse
• protection against arbitrary deprivation of liberty
• the right to apply for asylum
• the right to a legally secure asylum process
• the right to be heard, and
• the best interests of the child in all other respects.

We appeal to organizations as well as individuals to support to this campaign.