Background and objective. For unaccompanied asylum seeking children arriving in the host country, an assessment and determination of the best interests of the child must be carried out before a decision can be made about their request for protection. An unaccompanied asylum seeking child who asks such protection has to tell his or her life story to the migration authorities to enable them to make the decision on the child’s asylum request. However, a lot of unaccompanied refugee children face difficulties with sharing their life stories (Kohli, 2006). Experiences prior, during, and after the migration can cause hesitation to disclose their life narratives (Ní Raghallaigh, 2014; Van Os et al., 2016).
Decision-making in a migration procedure obliges the decision-makers to gather extensive information on an unknown − recently arrived – and often, silent child. In order to safeguard the best interests of children it is important to have scientifically based standards on the way the best interests of the child should be assessed. The Best Interests of the Child (BIC)-model, developed by the Study Centre for Children, Migration and Law of the University of Groningen, provides such a standard (Kalverboer & Zijlstra, 2006). The BIC-model consists of fourteen pedagogical environmental conditions that promote, and should safeguard, the development of the child. The right to development is closely linked to the 'best interests' concept. Against this background we will describe how the application of the BIC-model as part of a diagnostic assessment procedure can be helpful in ensuring the right to development of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Method and results. Elsa is an unaccompanied asylum seeker who came to the Netherlands at the age of 16. She failed to tell the reason for her flight in a coherent and consistent way, as the migration authorities requested. Elsa’s guardian asked the Study Centre for Children, Migration and Law to conduct a diagnostic research in order to find out what happened to her, and why she was not able to tell about her life in Eritrea in a ‘proper way’. We assessed the best interests of Elsa and concluded that the effect of traumatic experiences was hampering her ability to share with others the details that were needed to grant her protection.
Conclusions. This case study shows how the best interests of the child could be assessed in asylum procedures. It describes the topics that should be included, the instruments that can be used, and the facilitators needed for refugee children to disclose their life stories. Implications for research and practice will be reflected upon.
References
Kalverboer, M.E., & Zijlstra, A.E (2006). The interests of the child in Dutch law: Conditions of child development from a pedagogigal perspective. Amsterdam: SWP Publishers (in Dutch).
Kohli, R.S. (2006). The sound of silence: Listening to what unaccompanied asylum-seeking children say and do not say. British Journal of Social Work, 36, 707-721.
Ní Raghallaigh, M. (2014). The causes of mistrust amongst asylum seekers and refugees: Insights from research with unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors living in the Republic of Ireland. Journal of Refugee Studies, 27(1), 82-100.
Van Os, E.C.C., Zijlstra, A.E., Kalverboer, M.E., & Knorth, E.J. (2016). Finding keys: A systematic review of barriers and facilitators for refugee children's disclosure of their life stories (submitted).
Assessment and decision making in child welfare , Migration and minorities in child welfare
