In the EU migration and asylum context, ‘separated children’ are those migrant children who arrive on EU
territory accompanied by adults other than their parents or legal guardians - for example, relatives, or other non-related but known adults- who do not have established rights to care for and represent them. This is a different category from ''unaccompanied minors''.
In the context of preparations for the entry into force of Pact legislation, it is important to obtain updated and comparable information about this specific category of unaccompanied children, namely ‘separated children’, and the way their protection needs are currently addressed in EMN Member Countries. How the relationship between separated children and the accompanying adults is treated has important implications in terms of the reception conditions, procedural guarantees and assistance that they will receive in the context of the different types of asylum procedure (normal, accelerated, border procedures) in the Pact.
Read the inform here.