Children’s right to protection and care presumed to be a child and receive immediate assistance, support and protection.29 Applying restrictive age assessment approaches to treat children as adults in asylum procedures may result in violations of their rights under international human rights law, according to the UNHCR.30 The UNHCR suggests that age assessments should take into account not only the physical appearance of the child but also their psychological maturity. Likewise, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child requires assessments to be conducted in a scientific, safe, child- and gendersensitive and fair manner, avoiding any risk of violating the child’s physical integrity, and giving due respect to human dignity.31 Having a proper age assessment procedure in place helps ensure children’s access to rights, including placement in age-appropriate facilities, and promotes respect for child-specific safeguards against arbitrary detention. Tools and guidance: EASO tool advising Member States on age assessment The EASO is producing a  tool to highlight the key points to consider when undertaking age assessments in accordance with international, European and national legislation. The tool, which is expected to be made available in 2017, aims to serve as a  guide for policymakers and officials dealing with the development, review or implementation of age assessment policies and procedures. The tool complements an overview of age assessment practices published by EASO in December 2013. For more information, see EASO’s website In all cases involving age disputes regarding a person who claims to be a child, a guardian should be appointed to support and represent the individual throughout the procedure. Where medical examinations are used, 29 Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2011 on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims, OJ 2011 L 101 , pp. 1–11 (Anti-Trafficking Directive). See also Council of Europe, Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, CETS No. 197, 2005, Article 10. 30 UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Guidelines on International Protection: Child Asylum Claims under Articles 1 (A) 2 and 1 (F) of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 22 December 2009, HCR/GIP/09/08, para. 75. 31 UNHCR, UNHCR observations on the use of age assessments in the identification of separated or unaccompanied children seeking asylum, 1 June 2015, para. 9; UN, Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children Outside their Country of Origin, 1 September 2005, CRC/ GC/2005/6, para. 31 (i). See also, UNICEF (2013), Age Assessment: A Technical Note, Working paper, Geneva. unaccompanied children and/or their representatives must consent to the procedure (Asylum Procedure Directive, Article 25 (5)). Despite existing legal provisions, in practice, age assessment procedures frequently take place without the prior appointment of a guardian, FRA has found.32 A lack of appropriate age assessment procedures may result in child detention. For example, in the United Kingdom, reports from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP)33 and from the Refugee Council34 indicate that immigration officers – who have not been appropriately trained – make swift decisions regarding the age of applicants, without involving the local authorities, who are officially entrusted with age assessment and bound by strict legal requirements.35 In Hungary, during three monitoring visits to detention facilities in 2014, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee found at least 30 unaccompanied children who looked very young and claimed to be under 18, but were deemed adults by the authorities.36 Reports from Bulgaria, Spain and Italy suggest that children there are also improperly identified as adults or attached to and registered with unrelated adults and, as a result, being detained.37 Children are also detained when their age is disputed and while they wait for age assessments to be completed. Pending age assessment, a person should be treated as a child. Some Member States ban the detention of unaccompanied children for immigration-related purposes, but allow it when age is disputed. For example, in Belgium, a person who claims to be a child can be 32 FRA (2015), Guardianship systems for children deprived of parental care in the European Union: With a particular focus on their role in responding to child trafficking, Luxembourg, Publications Office. See also FRA (2016), Monthly overviews of current migration situation, Thematic focus: Children, Luxembourg, Publications Office. 33 United Kingdom, HM Inspectorate of Prisons (2016) ‘Report on an unannounced inspection of the short-term holding facilities at Longport freight shed, Dover Seaport and Frontier House 7 September, 1–2 and 5–6 October 2015’, page 15. 34 See Refugee Council, ‘Not a minor offence: unaccompanied children locked up as part of the asylum system’, May 2012. 35 See in this context also EASO (2013), Age assessment practice in Europe, December 2013, p.85. 36 Hungarian Helsinki Committee (2014), ‘Information Note on Asylum-Seekers in Detention and in Dublin Procedures in Hungary’, May 2014, p. 12. 37 Bulgaria, Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria (Омбудсман на Република България) (2016), Annual Report of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria as a National Preventive Mechanism 2015 (Годишен доклад на Омбудсмана на Република България като Национален превантивен механизъм 2015), 15 February 2016, p. 22, See also Human Rights Watch (2014), Universal Periodic Review Submission: Bulgaria, September 2014. Spain, Pueblos Unidos, Situación actual de los centros de internamiento de extranjeros en España y su adecuación al marco legal vigente, June 2015. Italy, ASGI (Associazione Studi Giuridici Immigrazione) and the association ‘Antigone’ have expressed serious concerns about this kind of situations, which, according to their experience, are increasingly frequent. 21