New Report on “Seeking Asylum Alone: Unaccompanied and Separated Children and Refugee Protection”

FROM Jacqueline Bhabha

As you know, every year thousands of children fleeing persecution arrive in the United States alone in search of protection. I am writing to share with you the recent publication of a report I co-authored with Susan Schmidt, entitled Seeking Asylum Alone: Unaccompanied and Separated Children and Refugee Protection in the U.S.The report is available by clicking here. It describes the nature and scale of migration by children entering the U.S. without parents, drawing upon government data and statements, advocates’ accounts, court proceedings, and interviews with key participants, including migrant children themselves. It is part of an international comparative research project on children and asylum conducted in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Reports describing the findings in the other countries, and an overall analysis comparing policies and practices in all three countries, will be published later this year. All four reports will be accessible on-line at: http://www.humanrights.harvard.edu for both download and purchase. Among the key findings of the report are that many unaccompanied and separated children have a stronger claim to asylum than has been recognized or acknowledged so far. It further suggests that many existing problems can be solved relatively easily, without jeopardizing United States’ migration management programs, instituting open door immigration policies or establishing reckless incentives to use children as migration anchors or investment commodities. The report calls for a transformation of the current system to recognize the obligation to take unaccompanied and separated children’s best interests seriously.

KJ