and the Construction of Vulnerability - Child Trafficking

ing. Lunch is at one.You clean and then do nothing.The merienda is at six or sixthirty,
maybe seven.We clean a little, then we do nothing. Dinner is at ten – we
clean and then do nothing. 143
In Finland, however, the picture is less bleak. A report states that reception centres
carried out specific needs assessments for each family that entered. Following this
assessment, families were placed in suitable accommodation, although this did not
always prevent children with their parents from being taken into detention. 144
In
almost all countries in Europe, even in places where children are not kept in detention
centres, children are held in transit or reception centres on their immediate
arrival. This can be for up to 20 days in countries such as France and Romania. 145
A study in Belgium found that lone minors intercepted while trying to make their
way across the channel to Britain generally lacked “essential information about legal
procedures and provisions and the reception structure for unaccompanied minors,
about their current and future possibilities, about possible dangers related to their
journey, about living circumstances in the UK, and so on”. 146 The study concludes
that minors need to be provided with adequate advice by people working independently
from the juridical and police context. It also stresses the need for interpreters
to be available during the interception – something that is not always the
case at present. The authors call for more research on what happens to those minors
who are not transferred to an institution, or those who leave the institution shortly
after they are placed, as well as to assess whether it is appropriate to transfer all
minors to an institution after their interception, or whether the minor’s own wishes
should be taken into account. Above all, they stress the need to increase the number
of reception places for unaccompanied minors without legal documents, and to
improve the level of care offered to children in crisis reception centers. x
6.3.2 Deportation
Most European countries now allow “unaccompanied minors” to stay in the country
until they are 18 years old, although in Germany, the cut-off point for residency
rights is 16. 147 While this may make the immediate future for children easier, it can
create stress and concern about the long term future. Children are less able, or
unwilling, to integrate fully into a country when they know it is likely they will be
deported when they reach their eighteenth birthday. This has adverse effects on their
mental health, education and settlement.
When children attempt to stay in the country after they turn 18, they risk becoming
destitute. In the UK, for example, turning 18 means losing the right to stay in
the country, losing the right to social benefits and losing the right to work. Illegal
work is therefore the only option for subsistence. There have been reports of chil-
143. Ibid
144. ECRE, 1996
145. Smith, 2005
146. Derluyn and Broekaert, 2005
147. ECRE, 1996
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