Emergency asylum accommodation for children violates their rights
The number of children being housed in emergency asylum accommodation has skyrocketed over the past two years. Various agencies have been issuing warnings for several years about the distressing conditions found in emergency accommodation in the Netherlands. Dr Mark Klaassen, Assistant Professor of Immigration Law, shares this concern in Dutch daily newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’.
Back in 2022, the Court in The Hague ruled that emergency accommodation did not meet the standards of the EU Reception Conditions Directive. In its decision, the Court also indicated that the government cannot be expected to meet impossible requirements. An article in de Volkskrant refers to a report published by the Dutch NGO Coalition for Children's Rights (Kinderrechtencollectief) publicly denouncing this.
Under European law, asylum accommodation has to comply with the EU Reception Conditions Directive. This directive is worded so broadly that it does not specifically mention the required number of play facilities per square metre, nor the required number of hours of mandatory education. Dr Klaassen adds that ‘the accommodation currently provided for children is woefully inadequate and violates children's rights’. He also advocates for more regular accommodation sites that prioritise children’s needs, in order to prevent children from ending up in emergency accommodation.
More information
Read the article in de Volkskrant here (in Dutch)
Photo: Siddhant Soni through Unsplash