European legal and policy framework on immigration detention of children Promising practice Requiring obligatory regular training of staff working in child detention facilities In the United Kingdom, staff in facilities that detain children and families must “be appropriately trained in the duty to have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children”, according to Section 55 of the Borders and Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 and the Detention Services Order 19/2012. All staff working with children must receive training in child protection; there must also be a  staff training strategy, which should set priorities for training in safeguarding and provide access to internal training programmes. The order also states that it may be beneficial for staff in detention facilities to access local authority child protection training. At Cedars, which formerly accommodated most of the detained migrant children in the United Kingdom, the children’s charity Barnardo’s provided all staff with a detailed induction and annual refresher courses in safeguarding. They also covered child sexual exploitation and trafficking. Sources: Barnardo’s (2014), Cedars: Two years on, April 2014, p 4; HM Government Home Office (2012), Detention Services Order 19/2012 Detention and Escorting Safeguarding Children Policy; UK, HM Government (2009), Borders and Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009, Section 55, 21 July 2009 7.3. Right to education Under human rights and refugee law, the right to education applies to all children, regardless of legal status.338 It therefore applies to children in immigration detention. Protocol No. 1 to the ECHR addresses the right to education: “No person shall be denied the right to education”. Pursuant to Article 22 of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the right to education applies to all, regardless of legal residence or stay. In Ponomaryovi v. Bulgaria,339 the ECtHR found that a requirement to pay secondary school fees based on the immigration status and nationality of the applicants was not justified. EU law comprehensively regulates the right to education for children applying for international protection. Within asylum procedures, children must have access to the education system under similar conditions to national children, and preparatory classes if necessary, and not later than three months after applying.340 For those in return proceedings, EU law expressly regulates only the right to education for children who are granted a voluntary period of departure or whose removal has In 2011, FRA mapped the legal situation concerning the right to education for children in an irregular situation in the then EU-27. In the majority of EU Member States, the right to education is provided to all children physically staying in the country, hence also to children staying irregularly or detained, although this was only explicitly set in law in four Member States. Only five EU Member States (Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden) did not provide for access to education for children in an irregular situation.343 Sweden has changed its approach since 2011, extending the right to education to all children.344 In Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania, when detained, all children regardless of status are entitled to education, although Lithuania sets forth this right only in the order regulating the stay in the detention 338 For an overview, see FRA (2011), Fundamental rights of migrants in an irregular situation in the European Union, Luxembourg, Publications Office, Chapter 7. 339 ECtHR, Ponomaryovi v. Bulgaria, No. 5335/05, 21 June 2011, paras. 59–63. 340 Reception Conditions Directive, Article 14 (1) and (2). 341 Return Directive, Article 17 (3). 342 European Commission (2015), Commission Recommendation of 1.10.2015 establishing a common “ Return Handbook” to be used by Member States’ competent authorities when carrying out return related tasks (Return Handbook) , C(2015) 6250 final, Brussels, 1 October 2015, p. 75. 343 FRA (2011), Fundamental rights of migrants in an irregular situation in the European Union, Luxembourg, Publications Office, Table 10, p. 89. 344 Sweden, Proposition 2012/13:58 on education for children staying in the country without permission (Utbildning för barn som vistas i landet utan tillstånd) amending the Education Act (Skollag) 2010:800, as approved by Parliament. The right to education for children seeking asylum is uncontroversial, but people in some EU Member States have asked if it also extends to migrant children in an irregular situation. 80 been postponed as well as for children in immigration detention. When detained, children in return procedures must have access to education “depending on the length of their stay” and to leisure activities, according to Article 17 (3) of the Return Directive.341 For children whose removal has been postponed or who have been granted a voluntary departure period, the Return Handbook underlines that the length of stay requirement should be interpreted restrictively, but considers that national practice, which normally establishes access to the education system only if the length of the stay is more than 14 days, may be acceptable.342