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Germany: Asylum practice violates children's rights

01 November 1999

A study published in August by the two United Nations bodies UNICEF and UNHCR, has found that Germany is in violation of basic child protection standards. Refugee organisations and legal experts have condemned the treatment of young refugees by Germany's immigration and deportation authorities for several years now. Apart from not giving unaccompanied child refugees proper representation in their asylum procedures, German authorities deport children even if it is not determined how, or even if, they are received in the countries they are being deported to.

Basically, say practitioners, the 1989 Convention for the Protection of the Rights of the Child has not played a role in Germany's asylum practice at all. The reason for the UNICEF/UNHCR study not having found a direct legal violation of the
Convention, is that Germany included two exceptions in its ratification in 1992. One of them holds that the Convention will not have the power to infringe on the right of the government to decide on laws and regulations governing the entry or residence of foreigners.

Human rights organisations assert that the insecure status of children is particularly problematic as it poses severe obstacles to education and training possibilities, not only in the area of education, also in that of medical care, young refugees are disadvantaged. Free medical treatment for the around 200,000 child refugees resident in Germany today, is only available in cases of "acute illness" or pregnancies. Although UNICEF has demanded the full enforcement of children's rights in Germany, a change in practice towards foreigners, minor or not, be it institutional, educational or medical, seems
unlikely.

Migration und Bevoelkerung, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin (September) 1999. The study is available in German on the net: www.unicef.de (under Forum/Mediathek/ Jahresberichte und Studien)