Child Migrants-legal protection and criminalisation
Author(s): K. Touzenis
The legal restrictions on the mobility of children lead to various forms of irregular migration and in many cases increase the possibility of risk and exploitation. The presentation critically evaluates the limits of different international conventions in relation to the legal rights of child migrants, such as the right to family life, return, reunification, taking into account the broader social and economic perspectives, which are linked to development. A focus on the respect for children's rights leads to further discussion in the presentation on the need for actual implementation of the right to participation and to reconsidering the notion of work, in cases where it does not entail exploitation. Nevertheless, another issue raised in the presentation is that of criminalisation. The absence of protective legal policies for child migrants results in the criminalisation of irregular child migrants. The presentation concludes that the definition of irregular migration sometimes is replaced with the term ‘illegal' which has a connotation of criminality. However, irregular migrants are not criminals and the criminalisation of irregular migration has serious implications for the protection of migrants' Human Rights.