No longer a child, not quite an adult: a critique of EU human rights approaches to unaccompanied asylum seeking and migrant minors in their transition to adulthood

Abstract

The majority of unaccompanied minors entering the EU are within less than two years of their eighteenth birthdays when they cross the border. Thousands more enter at younger ages, but reach adulthood on Member State territory. While still underage, unaccompanied minors are protected by EU and international human rights legislation, which explicitly acknowledge their vulnerability. Then, at the moment of their entry into adulthood, (former) unaccompanied minors experience a profound change in the legal protections and rights for which they are eligible. No longer children, and thus no longer indisputably vulnerable in the eyes of the law, these young people see their access to resources change, lessen or disappear altogether. Residence permits and protections granted on the basis of minority expire, and an unnerving sense of limbo ensues for those who have yet to receive an asylum decision, or who find themselves ineligible for protected status as adults. This instability is exacerbated by both EU and international law’s relative silence on the needs of unaccompanied minors after their eighteenth birthdays. Furthermore, the EU lacks a unified approach to safeguard these young migrants. This thesis conducts an in-depth examination of where human rights law does, and does not, address unaccompanied minors transitioning to adulthood. With an EU-specific focus, it looks at the language of relevant binding and non-binding frameworks, as well Member State law and practice concerning unaccompanied minors as they turn, and pass, 18. This research employs a multi-disciplinary approach; while law is the center-point, it also examines the needs of adolescents and young adults, as well as the challenges and vulnerabilities former unaccompanied minors face due to the law’s failure to comprehensively address their needs. This thesis will ultimately argue that former unaccompanied minors’ absence in crucial, binding human rights legislation leaves their particular needs inadequately addressed.