FRA: Effective guardianship is key to better protect unaccompanied children

The latest report from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), ‘Guardianship systems for unaccompanied children in the EU’, shows that both, the EU and its Member States, still face many challenges when it comes to providing effective guardianship for unaccompanied children arriving in Europe. As the FRA Director Michael O’Flaherty stated, ‘the gap between theory and practice leaves many of these vulnerable children without the guardian they need’; therefore, the system has to become more effective. The report covers 27 EU Member States, North Macedonia and Serbia and it brings focus to the children from non-EU countries.

The document, based on the previous FRA research, analyzes the key developments in EU policies since 2014 and proposes possible improvements. It states that the EU systems for unaccompanied children are improving (with such measures taken as EU’s Child Rights and Anti-trafficking strategies), however, still a lot has to be done. Amongst the priority issues the report enlists:

• equal protection of all children, regardless of their status,
• acting in the child’s best interest,
• proper training of the guardians.

It also highlights the fact that the guardianship systems across the EU vary significantly, which may lead to an inconsistent approach in the individual Member States and potential conflicts of interests due to overlapping responsibilities.

However, regardless of the abovementioned issues, according to the report, the EU guardianship systems’ are becoming more and more effective.