False Refugees in Child Trafficking – Portugal

The increase in the number of undocumented foreigners arriving in Portugal with minors leaves children detained in temporary reception centers, especially at Lisbon Airport. The lack of adequate facilities for families and the "strong signs of child trafficking" are cited as causes of the situation that goes against the Convention on the Rights of the Child and led the United Nations Refugee Agency to alert the Ombudsman

The problem is that babies, children of asylum seekers, have to stay for several weeks – and in some cases months – in the adult shows. In one of the cases reported yesterday by the newspaper Público, a three-year-old spent a month and a half sleeping on a mattress next to her mother's bed in a room with 16 more people.

) states that the "paradigm has changed since 2016, with more people coming undocumented and with strong indications of trafficking in minors". "In recent years, we have witnessed an influx of adults accompanied by asylum-seeking minors in Portugal, without documents of identity and / or evidence of family ties or of parental consent to travel with the child, who is normally undocumented

In these cases, due diligence is carried out to verify the identity of the children and a period is given to the adults to present the documentation, which , otherwise, may indicate trafficking of minors, and there is a need to wait with the Court of Family and Minors, the measure of protection, as well as the appointment of a legal representative, "explains SEF, ensuring that all unaccompanied minors travel to the Refugee Shelter after the application for asylum.

Acácio Pereira, president of the union of SEF inspectors says that this situation occurs because "there is no adequate facilities for families, children can not be separated from their parents, nor allow the entry of people who do not know who they really are. "

DETAILS
The CPR criticizes the delays
data of the Portuguese Council for Refugees (CPR), in 2017 17 asylum seekers were held at the Temporary Accommodation Center for an average of 14 days.

Ombudsman without means
Maria Lúcia Amaral, a justice provider, claims that she does not have the means to supervise the way in which foreigners are treated in temporary detention centers. Rui Pereira, former interior minister, said Sunday that "Portugal does well not to separate families", but "it's an impenetrable universe".

"It can not be separated"
"the procedure [de concessão de asilo] must be faster".

The new center will have a service for families
After this ten year waiting period, the contract for the construction of the new SEF temporary reception center in Almoçageme, Sintra, was awarded this month. It will accommodate 50 people, with two wings depending on the genre and a service for families.