I thank the Chairman and members of the joint committee for affording us the opportunity to speak with them today. My colleagues are Ms Maria Corbett from the policy office of the Children's Rights Alliance; Ms Mary Nicholson, community and advocacy officer with the ISPCC; and Ms Jyothi Kanics, separated children's officer with the Irish Refugee Council.
The action for separated children in Ireland umbrella group came together approximately 18 months ago to look at the issue of separated and trafficked children because of growing concerns within the NGO and statutory sectors about how such children were being looked after once they arrived in this country. Ireland has an opportunity to improve the lives of the vulnerable group of children who are separated or trafficked into Ireland. As we have all, in our individual capacities, made submissions to the committee, we will not go over everything today. Having spoken this morning with the Chairman who did us the honour of coming to our public meeting on the issue, we have agreed to keep the presentation short in order that members will have time to engage with the subject.
The principles we want observed are those outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, as members will not be surprised to hear. Ireland is a signatory to the convention which it has ratified. Its key principles are that the best interests of the child are paramount in all matters; that every child is entitled to support to achieve his or her potential in areas such as education, accommodation and health and social services; and that each child has a right to be heard, depending on age and stage of development. There are also the principle of non-discrimination and, in particular, the principle in Article 20 to the effect that separated children are entitled to special protection.
In the Bill, as it stands, children are viewed through the lens of a system designed primarily for adults. The action for separated children group wants children to be visible in the legislation and wants their needs and rights to be recognised and catered for. We want their immigration status to be only a secondary consideration - they are children first. We want the Bill to cover all children, including those within the European Union and the European Economic Area, as well as outside these areas. The reason for this is that separated children, particularly those who might be trafficked, come from these and other areas.
We want to put six key points to the joint committee to improve the Bill for children. We want the Bill to include a definition of separated children. In some of the written material and media commentary these children are described as unaccompanied minors. We make a distinction in this regard by describing them as separated children because describing them as unaccompanied minors presents the picture that they have turned up on their own. Many of them turn up accompanied by adults but not by their legal guardians or anybody else who has any right to be with them. We would like the following definition to be included: "Separated children are children under 18 years of age who are outside their country of origin and are separated from either their parents or their previous legal customary primary care-givers".
The Bill is the criminal justice response to trafficking. It states welfare and protection provisions will be included in the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2008. We believe they are not included in sufficient capacity and would like a provision for child protection to be present. These children are particularly vulnerable because they do not have their parents or guardians with them. They are alone in a strange country. There is a need, therefore, for training for first responders - the people who first meet these children - in order that they can identify those who are separated. We note that this need is fully recognised by the anti-human-trafficking unit in the Department. We have spoken to the staff in the unit and they recognise that training for gardaí, HSE and NGO staff must be provided in order that they can all work together. This is in line with the good principles already in place for working with children.
We want the idea of a multidisciplinary team to be adopted, with contact and co-operation from the first point to include gardaí, the HSE and relevant non-governmental organisations. Age assessments should be carried out in accordance with international best practice. We know from other jurisdictions that this is not a once-off event. One cannot just look at a child and determine his or her age. We want 24-hour social work cover which is sadly missing for all children in Ireland, including those we are discussing. We want proper accommodation and follow-up supports.
The following are the changes needed to the Bill. The best interest principle should be included, as should the definition of separated children. The Bill should include a clear entitlement to protection. We also need to amend the Child Care Act 1991, two sections of which deal with these children - section 4 under which children are voluntarily admitted into care and section 5 which deals with homelessness. Clearly, the provision in section 4 is the preferred way, but in different parts of the country different sections are used. Section 26 of the Child Care Act also needs to be amended in order that each separated child has an independent guardian appointed who will look after his or her best interests until final determination is made. We want a situation where no child will be in the country without a legally determined status. There are children who have been here for a considerable length of time who as yet have no determined status. They are new changes.
I will turn to changes to current provision. In section 73 we want to see the child's right to apply in his or her own right to seek protection restored to the Bill. Children may have additional grounds to apply for protection and residency separate from those that their parents might use.
In section 83 we would like to have inserted in the Bill the right to apply to stay in the State on humanitarian grounds. This might particularly apply to the children who came here in the year 2000-01 and are now described as aged-out minors. These are children who have reached the age of 18 years but have not been here for a considerable length of time. We would like them to have the right to apply to stay in the State for humanitarian reasons. We recognise that determination would be made by the Minister.
A number of sections of the Bill cover the issue of detention, particularly sections 55, 56, 58, 70 and 71. In some circumstances children can be detained. We want this provision removed and want it recognised that children should be accommodated only in child appropriate services. Garda cells and so on are not child appropriate services.
Regarding family reunification, we want the child's rights to a family to be recognised and to have expanded the provisions as laid out in section 50. We recognise the need to determine exactly who is family because one of the problems for children is knowing who are the adults who have them. Flexibility is needed to respond to the situation of individual children. It cannot just be parents because their parents may be elsewhere or may no longer be available to them.
We want to look at the issue of trafficking which is dealt with in section 124 of the Bill. We need specific provisions to be written into the Bill for the identification of children who might be trafficked, the prevention of trafficking and for the protection and support of these children. We need to be sure that we are not giving children to traffickers who identify themselves as being related to them. We want an onus to be placed on the State to ensure the person with the child has authorisation to have custody of him or her. That involves substituting the word "shall" for the word "may" in section 124.
Trafficked children are most vulnerable. With the Garda, we recognise them as children who were initially taken into the care of the HSE and went missing from State care. Until now children have been cared for in very big hostels, even children as young as 14 or 15 years of age. It is very easy for those who want to traffic them to remove them from such a setting. We know from many of the children talking to the NGOs that they have been taken from their countries of origin, have been threatened with their families, have been very frightened and gone along. At least two incidents have been reported. We know from talking to the HSE of many other children going missing from care, being apprehended by the Garda, being used in brothels, being taken back into State care and going missing again. Thankfully, some of those children are now in safe placements in foster care and the link with their traffickers has been broken.
We welcome the opportunity to engage in discussion and ask questions which my colleagues and I will answer. We recognise that this is a complex Bill and that the committee has hard work to do. We reiterate to it and the Oireachtas that the Bill should be strongly guided by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the principles of best international practice, experience gained by NGOs and statutory agencies during the years and experts in this area, for example, the special rapporteurs on child protection. We would like the committee to recognise that these are children, first and foremost, that they are children who are in Ireland and that we have a moral and legal obligation to protect them and uphold their rights. They have a right to be protected, have their needs met and be kept safe. I ask the committee to consider a section in the Bill specifically relating to these especially vulnerable children with their specific needs and rights put together because in many situations children and others suffer from parts of Acts that are not pulled together. It may be easier to include a specific section in this Bill rather than trying to amend parts in which children are lumped in - probably a bad choice of words - with adults.
