Several NGOs specialized in the defense of children's rights have urgently requested to continue with the processing of the reform of the age determination procedure for unaccompanied migrant children and young people proposed by the Government.
This was stated in a joint statement by Plataforma de Infancia, Fundación Raíces, Andalucía Acoge, Save The Children and the Federation of Associations for the Prevention of Child Abuse (fapmi-ECPAT España) in view of the debate on the amendments to the entirety presented by PP and Vox to the reform that will take place this Thursday in Congress.
The proposal consists of two bills approved by the Council of Ministers that modifies the age determination procedure for unaccompanied migrant youth to protect the rights of minors with measures such as the prohibition of full nudity and other invasive tests.
With the proposed modifications, the process goes from being an administrative process to being a judicial process of civil order and governed by the principle of the best interests of the child, the presumption of minority, the right to be heard and take part in the procedure, the prohibition of invasive tests and full nudity, and the specialization of the professionals involved, among other guarantees.
Faced with this initiative, the entities celebrate that the Government has decided to initiate this regulation and urge its processing in Congress, since the current age determination procedure seriously violates the rights of children and has very serious consequences.
They recall that this has been indicated by different organizations such as the Ombudsman, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court.
For this reason, they value "very positively" the proposal carried out by the Government, which incorporates some essential guarantees, such as its configuration as a judicial procedure or the provision of free legal assistance.
However, they do not believe that this new procedure fully complies with the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, the opinions of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the recommendations of the Ombudsman or the guidelines agreed upon in this regard by the Council of Europe.
For this reason, these and other entities such as Amnesty International or the Jesuit Migrant Service have sent the different political groups a proposal of amendments to the bills to remedy some risks of the procedure that is proposed.
They warn that this allows not to validate the documentation issued by the countries of origin, generates great legal uncertainty in the configuration of the procedure as urgent, without a procedure for allegations, and is contrary to the best interests of the child in terms of the lack of provision for appeal against the denial of precautionary measures for the protection of the child.
For all these reasons, they consider that the reform should continue its parliamentary process and move to the amendment phase of the articles to incorporate all these guarantees in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and that, in this way, "the rights of thousands of unaccompanied migrant girls, boys and adolescents cease to be systematically violated".