Article 22: Migrant and displaced children and children seeking asylum

Asylum seeking
1. An asylum seeker is an individual who is seeking international protection. In countries with individualised procedures, an asylum seeker is someone whose claim has not yet been finally decided on by the country in which he or she has submitted it. Not every asylum seeker will ultimately be recognised as a refugee, but every refugee is initially an asylum seeker.

2. The specific circumstances facing child asylum-seekers as individuals with independent claims to refugee status are not generally well understood. Children may be perceived as part of a family unit rather than as individuals with their own rights and interests. This is explained partly by the subordinate roles, positions and status children still hold in many societies worldwide. The accounts of children are more likely to be examined individually when the children are unaccompanied than when they are accompanied by their families. Even so, their unique experiences of persecution, due to factors such as their age, their level of maturity and development and their dependency on adults have not always been taken into account. Children may not be able to articulate their claims to refugee status in the same way as adults and, therefore, may require special assistance to do so.

Best Interests Determination
BID describes the formal process with strict procedural safeguards designed to determine the child’s best interests for particularly important decisions affecting the child. It should facilitate adequate child participation without discrimination, involve decision-makers with relevant areas of expertise, and balance all relevant factors in order to assess the best option.

Country of origin
In the migration context, a country of nationality or of former habitual residence of a person or group of persons who have migrated abroad, irrespective of whether they migrate regularly or irregularly.

Food insecure households
Food insecurity exists when people lack access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food and are therefore not consuming the food required for normal growth and development, and for an active and healthy life. This may be due to the unavailability of food, insufficient purchasing power, inappropriate distribution, or inadequate utilization at household level. Food insecurity, poor conditions of health and sanitation, and inappropriate social and care environment are the major causes of poor nutritional status (WHO, 2002).

Household food insecurity is the inadequate or insecure access to food due to financial constraints. (PROOF Food Insecurity Policy Research, 2018).

Migrant
“The term ‘migrant’, is not defined under international law, and is sometimes used differently by different stakeholders. Traditionally, the word ‘migrant’ has been used to designate people who move by choice rather than to escape conflict or persecution, usually across an international border (‘international migrants’), for instance to join family members already abroad, to search for a livelihood, or for a range of other purposes. The term is increasingly used as an umbrella term to refer to any person who moves away from their usual place of residence, whether internally or across a border, and regardless of whether the movement is ‘forced’ or voluntary. (UNHCR, 2019).

Refugee children
“Refugees are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country”.

“They often have had to flee with little more than the clothes on their back, leaving behind homes, possessions, jobs and loved ones”.

Refugees are defined and protected in international law. The 1951 Refugee Convention is a key legal document and defines a refugee as: “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”

Article 22 of the CRC accords special rights to refugee children. Under this provision, refugee children are defined as children who are seeking refgee status outside the country of their nationality or former habitual residence or who are considered a refugee in accordance with applicable international or domestic law and procedures, whether unaccompanied or accompanied by their parents or by any other person. States Parties are required to ensure that such children receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance in the enjoyment of applicable rights set forth in the CRC and in other human rights or humanitarian treaties to which States Parties to the CRC are also Parties (see “Refugee protection”). In cases where no parents or family members of a refugee child can be traced, the child shall be accorded the same protection as any other child permanently or temporarily deprived of his or her family environment, as set forth in Article 20 of the CRC.

Unaccompanied minors
Children who are not in the company of parents or another adult caregiver (UNHCR, 2005).