Principle 4:
Special protection measures in
returning child victims
International law requires that child victims of trafficking be accorded special measures of protection and assistance. The majority of OSCE participating States have not
established standard procedures for determining the best interests of child victims
with regard to status, residency, care arrangements or the determination of durable
solutions. Practice shows that a commitment to the principle of the best interests of
the child, even if enshrined in law, is not sufficient to guarantee the effective implementation of that principle. Even when such procedures are in place, they are not always followed.198 In terms of the protection and assistance measures that are in place
in the OSCE area, some OSCE participating States have introduced legal provisions
for the appointment of a temporary legal guardian for unaccompanied child victims
of trafficking.199
The number of unaccompanied minors returned from or to OSCE participating States
is low. Such returns are usually voluntary and undertaken via programs implemented
by international organizations such as the IOM.200 There are reports that unaccompanied and sometimes undocumented children are being returned to country borders,
without prior assessment of their best interests and outside the terms of the EU readmission agreement.201 Recorded cases of return by IOM indicate that, prior to return,
assessments are routinely conducted to determine the best interests of the child.202 In
the EU, according to a recent study, most member states do not forcibly return unaccompanied children but do return children as part of a family unit, and in some cases
return children under voluntary return programmes.203
198 E-notes Report, p. 90; European Union: European Agency for Fundamental Rights, Child Trafficking in the
European Union: Challenges, Perspectives and Good Practices, 7 July 2009, p. 95.
199 E-notes Report, p. 90.
200 European Migration Network (EMN), Policies on Reception, Return and Integration arrangements for, and
numbers of, Unaccompanied Minors – an EU comparative study, May 2010, pp. 71-75.
201 UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN Special Rapporteur on the Human
Rights of Migrants, Statement on Mission to Albania, December 2011.
202 European Migration Network, Policies on Reception, Return and Integration, op. cit., note 200, pp. 116
and 119.
203 European Council on Refugees and Exiles, Comparative Study on Practices in the Field of Return of Minors :
a Checklist to Achieve Good Practices When Considering the Return of Children to Third Countries: A Tool for Quality
Planning for Member States, December 2011, HOME/2009/RFXX/PR/1002, p. 12.
Guiding Principles on Human Rights in the Return of Trafficked Persons
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