Migration commission calls for special status for child asylum-seekers

Walter Leimgruber says unaccompanied minors are particularly vulnerable Keystone / Lukas Lehmann

In the future Switzerland will have to apologise for its treatment of children seeking asylum – as it has already done in the case of children in care – warns the president of the Federal Commission for Migration.

The needs of children are not taken into account in the asylum procedure and “provisional admission is an obsolete concept”, says Walter Leimgruber in an interview published on Tuesday by the German-language newspapers of the Tamedia media group.

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Children need a special protection status like that granted to Ukrainians, he adds: limited in time and with defined rules, so that the people concerned can become independent as quickly as possible. But, he notes, there is no coherent policy for the constructive management of migration, which is set to increase in the future.

Clear training and employment structures are also needed, continues the chairman of the extra-parliamentary committee. “While asylum procedures are under way, there is a need for schools and employment programmes, as well as varied contacts with society, in associations for example.”

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He points out that minor asylum seekers should then be able to access training without long interruptions. “We are on the right track with the Agenda for Integration Switzerland. But it must apply to everyone.”

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Another problem for child asylum-seekers is that asylum centres operate like barracks, notes Leimgruber. “And barracks are not suitable for children. There are guards in uniform, which is frightening for children in war zones.”

What’s more, the conditions and the staff looking after the children are constantly changing, says Leimgruber. “But children need constancy, familiarity and reference people, without whom developmental problems can arise, at great cost to society.”

He says unaccompanied minors are particularly vulnerable. “Unfortunately, and young people feel this, nobody cares whether they are still there or not. So we are not fulfilling the protection mandate of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

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