A/HRC/28/68 3. Children in administrative immigration detention institutions 59. States frequently detain children who are refugees, asylum seekers or irregular migrants for a number of reasons, such as health and security screening, to verify their identity or to facilitate their removal from the territory. Sometimes, children may be inadvertently detained because there is a failure to distinguish between child and adult migrants, such as when children are unable to prove their age. 19 The Special Rapporteur has previously noted with concern that unaccompanied child migrants are systematically held in detention at police stations, border guard stations or migration detention centres instead of being held in reception centres, which are in practice often not numerous enough or are overcrowded (see A/HRC/16/52/Add.4, paras. 68-69). Most of the unaccompanied minors are not adequately informed about asylum procedures or their rights, do not have access to legal counsel or guardians, and are generally ignorant of the system. 20 Furthermore, the procedure to identify minors and to assess their age and vulnerability appears to be completely inadequate, as many children reported being registered as adults (see A/HRC/16/52/Add.4, paras. 68-73 and CAT/C/USA/CO/3-5, para. 19). 60. Many child migrants witness or suffer harsh physical abuse while detained. Reports indicate that children in immigration detention have been tied up or gagged, beaten with sticks, burned with cigarettes and given electric shocks, and that the use of solitary confinement of children in immigration detention is common around the globe. In other instances, migrant children have suffered from severe anxiety and mental harm after having witnessed sexual abuse and violence against other detainees. In some countries, encampment policies have led to the kidnapping, captivity and torture of child refugees. Child migrant detainees too often face lengthy detainment. 21 61. In addition, many child migrants suffer appalling and inhuman conditions while detained including overcrowding, inappropriate food, insufficient access to drinking water, unsanitary conditions, lack of adequate medical attention, and irregular access to washing and sanitary facilities and to hygiene products, lack of appropriate accommodation and other basic necessities. In some cases, detention centres refuse to keep migrant children with their families also being detained, and have denied migrant children’s right to communicate with their families. Such practices effectively isolate child detainees from social support groups. 62. According to the European Court of Human Rights, even short term detention of migrant children is a violation of the prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment, holding a child’s vulnerability and best interests outweigh the Government’s interest in halting illegal immigration. 22 The Inter-American Court of Human Rights further noted that, when assessing the possibility to return, expel, deport, repatriate, reject at the border, or not to admit or in any way transfer or remove a child to a State, the best interests of the child must 19 20 21 22 Information received from the International Detention Coalition on 2 February 2015. International Detention Coalition, Captured Childhood, Melbourne, Australia, 2012. See Human Rights Watch, Barely Surviving: Detention, Abuse and Neglect of Migrant Children in Indonesia, 2013, pp. 4, 34-36; MaryBeth Morand et al., The Implementation of UNHCR’s Policy on Refugee Protection and Solutions in Urban Areas, Global Survey – 2012, UNHCR, April 2013, p. 5; and Amnesty International, “Egypt/Sudan: Refugees and asylum seekers face brutal treatment, kidnapping for ransom and human trafficking”, 2013, paras. 6, 8. Popov v. France, judgement of 19 January 2012; Rahimi v. Greece, judgement of 5 April 2011; Mubilanzila Mayeka and Kaniki Mitunga v Belgium, judgement of 12 October 2006. 13