Osnabrück/Berlin, 20.12.23- The International Child Rights Organization terre des hommes is horrified by the agreement on a reform on a common European asylum system made between the Council of European Justice and Interior Minister, the EU Commission and the European Parliament. The border procedures for minors, the massive expansion of the concept of the safe third countries and the lowering of essential procedural guarantees create the basis for the sale of general child rights in the EU and thus the end of the European value system.
»With the agreement announced today, all human rights red lines have been exceeded in the EU. In Brussels, the fate of hundreds of thousands was also decided before persecution and war refugees. Many of the children and adolescents are now threatened with a life behind barbed wire in isolated detention centers, powerlessness towards official decisions and the risk of returns to countries that are not safe for them in reality. It is particularly shocking that there will be no exceptions from the border process for families with children of all ages. Border procedures under imprisonment or adhesive -like conditions are and remain extremely contrary to children's rights. But that children have rights no longer seems to play a role in the EU. We are disappointed and stunned that the Federal Government and the EU support this historical break with child rights and thus the departure of humanity in the EU, «says Sophia Eckert, migration and right-wing expert at terre des hommes .
According to the terre des hommes , reform proposals are also affected by refugee children and adolescents from border processes under detention or adhesive-like accommodation at the EU external borders without exception. This violates the right to protect against deprivation of liberty in the UN Convention on the Child Rights. In addition, their possibilities are restricted to effectively defend themselves against decisions by authorities. Without effective legal protection and child -friendly procedural support, the rights and the well -being of refugee children in the EU cannot be preserved. With the expansion of the concept of the so -called safe third countries, there is also a risk of massive effects on the protection of asylum seekers in the EU.