The third session of the Cycle of seminars on the legal and social situation of unaccompanied young migrants in Catalonia took place on June 7 at the Palau Macaya in Barcelona, organised by the Office of the Club of Rome in Barcelona, the Faculty of Law from the UAB and the Institute of European Studies (IEE) of the same University; all this within the framework of the activities that are being developed within the University Observatory on Unaccompanied Minors in Catalonia, of which the IEE is a founding member. The event was chaired by Dr. José María de Dios, Professor of Private International Law at the UAB and Director of the IEE, who conveyed to the audience the thanks of Jaume Lanaspa, President of the Office of the Club of Rome in Barcelona, who did not he could be present at the event.
The presentation was given by Dr. María Carmen Gete-Alonso and Judith Solé, both Professors of Civil Law at the UAB. Under the title of “Unaccompanied migrant minors in the mirror of child and adolescent protection regulations”, they set out the general framework of child protection regulations, from the international level, through the state. In this sense, the speakers carefully analysed the way in which both the situation of child abandonment and the different existing protection instruments -guard, residential and family foster care, etc.- are regulated, and then concluded that, as concepts such as abandonment have not been conceived, considering the situation of unaccompanied migrant minors, perhaps a work of reflection could be carried out on the need to ‘update’ state and regional regulations.
After the intervention of the two Professors, there was an interesting debate, for more than an hour, with the intervention of some of the audience who had been expressly invited to the event. Thus, Ester Cabanes, Director General of Child and Adolescent Care of the Generalitat de Catalunya, explained the way in which the concept of abandonment is being interpreted and applied, within the framework of the General Directive 6/20 / 20, which regulates the management of the abandonment of unaccompanied immigrant children and adolescents; Professor José María de Dios, director of the IEE, brought up the concepts of “isolated” foreign child or “vulnerable person”, used in community-level regulations, assimilable but not comparable to that of the abandonment of the child; Albert Parès, social lawyer and president of the “Noves Vies” Association, stressed the need to normatively recognise the right of the unaccompanied migrant minor to appoint a lawyer of his / her choice, for the defense of his / her interests in the broadest sense; Almudena González García, professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Barcelona and co-coordinator of the “Clinic for the Protection of Children and Adolescents”, stressed the importance of legally developing the issue of the training of unaccompanied minors, which prevents companies from being able to offer paid internships, thus also violating their right to education; Laura Rodríguez Bonilla, lawyer in charge of the Legal and Socio-Educational Support Service for young people who emigrate alone (Cruz Roja Barcelona) -who attended the event accompanied by Andrea Trescoli Valls, lawyer of the aforementioned Service-, stressed that it is essential to extend legal protection and these young people when they reach the age of majority; Finally, Dr. Iván Aybar, professor at the UAB School of Law and coordinator of the Cycle of Papers, warned of the need to channel the files of abandonment – or danger of their eventual nullity – through the Hague Convention of 1996 – ratified by Morocco -, which requires the cooperation of the country of origin when issuing the report on the family and social situation of the minor.
Next session of the Cycle of seminars: Tuesday, June 22, 6 pm, Palau Macaya in Barcelona.
Title: “From Trump to Biden: the current situation of unaccompanied minors on the border between Mexico and the United States”
Speaker: Eileen Matus. PhD in Law from the UAB. Professor at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores in Monterrey (Mexico). Human rights activist lawyer, advisor to NGOs and institutions working to defend the rights of the child on the Mexico-USA border.
Description of the seminar: the Trump-Biden political transition and its reflection on the legal and social situation of immigrants on the border between Mexico and the United States; special reference to unaccompanied minors; impact of the pandemic on these migratory processes; the action of organised crime networks: human trafficking, sexual exploitation of girls and young people; a view from a gender perspective. “
Anyone interested in attending should contact the Cycle Coordinator, via the following email: ivan.aybar@uab.cat
