Seeking Asylum Alone is a two-year comparative study documenting the circumstances and treatment of unaccompanied and separated children who cross borders in search of protection. The study was conducted in three countries—the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia—where the distinctive problems facing child asylum seekers are significant and unresolved. This report concerns the United States. Reports describing the findings in the other countries, and an overall analysis comparing policies and practices in all three countries, will be published later this year (2006).
This report explores the complexity of an immigration system which fails to address children’s problems in a coherent and integrated way and which funnels children through an adversarial system that ignores their best interests and violates their human rights. The report calls for greater attention to this serious and unjustified protection deficit. The report analyzes current policy and practice in detail. It explores the extent to which asylum or other available immigration remedies, such as Special Immigrant Juvenile Status or trafficking visas, provide effective protection to unaccompanied and separated children. It details the serious deficiencies in government record keeping, in the treatment and representation of children, in coordination between different government agencies, and in the range of decision making procedures, from off-shore interdiction and initial border control measures, through interim care and initial determinations, to final appeals and removal decisions.
Overall, the report concludes that:
- The U.S. fails to provide adequate protection to unaccompanied and separated minors.
- Many unaccompanied and separated children have a stronger claim to asylum than has been recognized or acknowledged so far.
- Many existing problems can be solved relatively easily, without jeopardizing United States’ migration management programs, instituting open door immigration policies or establishing reckless incentives to use children as migration anchors or investment commodities.
A Brief Summary of Policy and Practice Recommendations
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The best interest of the child principle, foundational in child welfare and juvenile justice, is virtually absent from immigration law and policy.
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Improving federal data management—including record keeping and analysis of child migration — is required to better document the current situation and monitor trends, policy and practice.
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U.S. avenues to protect unaccompanied and separated children require modifications to be effective and child sensitive.
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Initial reception and screening procedures must be modified to appropriately respond to children’s needs.
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Protection measures routinely afforded children in other court and government custody situations should likewise apply to children in immigration proceedings Detention must be eliminated as a routine option during the processing of claims by unaccompanied or separated children.
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Innovations in legal doctrine introduced into adult refugee litigation must be applied to asylum cases involving children.
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Federal agencies deciding children’s asylum claims must improve and increase child-specific training for decision makers.
For more information please visit http://www.humanrights.harvard.edu
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