Child-specific procedural safeguards to decisions related to detention of child applicants for international protection. Similarly, the Return Directive stipulates that Member States must take due account of the best interests of the child.252 This applies to the implementation of the Return Directive as a whole, including any decisions related to detention. The European Commission clarified that the child’s right to be heard is an integral part of any best interests assessment and must include respecting the child’s rights to express their own views freely and have these views taken duly into account in all matters affecting the child.253 In general terms, Member States have incorporated the provisions of relevant EU  law (particularly the Return Directive and the Reception Conditions Directive) into national law without expressly requiring that the child be heard. The 2015 amendments to the Finnish Aliens Act indicate that stronger national law provisions are possible: the Act now expressly stipulates that a child can be placed in detention only after they and the responsible municipal social worker have had the opportunity to be heard by the judge.254 6.1.2. Child-friendly information The Dublin Regulation also recognises the need for child-specific information. 257 It does not, however, include a duty to provide information in a child-friendly manner. Such a safeguard would be particularly important for unaccompanied children, as they typically face significant difficulties in understanding the purpose and requirements of legal procedures and what their duty to cooperate with the authorities entails, as FRA emphasises in its opinion on the proposal for a revised Dublin Regulation.258 In international law, Article 12 of the CRC underlines the right of the child to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings, and have their views given due weight in accordance with their age and maturity.259 This requires that any communication with the child be appropriate to the child, also taking into account the requirement that information must be in a language that the detained person understands, under Article 5 (2) of the ECHR. Ø According to Article 5 (2) of the ECHR, Member States must promptly inform everyone who is arrested of the reasons for their arrest and of any charge against them. ‘Everyone’ includes children. However, only some Member States specify in legislation the duty to communicate immigration-related decisions, including detention decisions, in a child-friendly manner. Relevant EU law requires that persons subject to asylum or return procedures be informed of their rights and the decisions concerning them in a language that they understand or are reasonably supposed to understand. The Reception Conditions Directive specifically stipulates that detained applicants be immediately informed of the reasons for their detention, procedures to challenge the detention order and the option to request free legal assistance and interpretation.255 The primacy of the best interests of the child implies that this information must also be communicated in a manner appropriate to the age and maturity of the child. The Asylum Procedures Directive obliges Member States to ensure that personnel of detention facilities have sufficient information and training to be able to inform applicants where and how applications for international protection may be lodged; Member States should interpret it in a similar way.256 When accompanied children are detained with their parents and/or legal guardians, it is assumed that the parents/guardians will inform their children. Therefore, no specific provisions or practices are in place for communicating such decisions in a child-friendly manner. Sometimes, the appointed legal advisers or other counsellors who support all individuals involved in a given procedure inform them. Legal-aid providers and civil society organisations that provide services in detention facilities also play key roles in providing information, such as Save the Children in the migration hotspots in Italy.260 Children can benefit from these general measures, but it remains unclear how child-friendly they are. 252 Return Directive, Article 5 (a). 253 European Commission, Commission Recommendation (EU) 2017/432 on making returns more effective when implementing the Directive 2008/115/EC, C/2017/1600, Brussels, 7 March 2017, at recital 19 and para. 13 (d). European Commission, The protection of children in migration, COM/2017/0211 final, 12 April 2014 at point 5. See also European Commision (2015), Commission Recommendation establishing a common “Return Handbook” to be used by Member States’ competent authorities when carrying out return related tasks, C/2017/1600, Brussels, 1 October 2015, p. 51. 254 Finland, Finnish Aliens Act, Section 122 in conjunction with Sections 117a and 121. 255 Reception Conditions Directive, Article 9 (4). 256 Asylum Procedures Directive, Article 6 (1). 257 Dublin Regulation, Recital (34) and Article 4 (3). 258 FRA (2016), Opinion on the impact of children, of the proposal for a revised Dublin Regulation (COM(2016)270 final; 2016/0133 COD), Luxembourg, Publications Office, p. 37. 259 See also Committee on the Rights of the Child (2009), General Comment No. 12, paras. 21, 123-124. 260 FRA (2016), Opinion on fundamental rights in the ‘hotspots’ set up in Italy and Greece, Luxembourg, Publications Office, p. 21. 65