the best interests of the child 9. In their Joint General Comments published on 17 November 2017, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers reaffirm that“ States should expeditiously and completely cease or eradicate the immigration detention of children” and“ any kind of child immigration detention should be forbidden by law and such prohibition should be fully implemented in practice” 10.
How can this be achieved?
• By enacting legislation and / or policies to prohibit the migration detention of children and implement alternatives to detention that enable refugee and migrant children to remain with their family members and / or care givers. This should be in noncustodial, community-based contexts that respect the rights of the child, are in their best interests and focus on case resolution 11. In Slovakia, the Human Rights League has partnered with several NGOs to promote alternatives to migration detention by working with the national government, local communities and UN bodies.
• By scaling up the development of family and community-based care solutions in order to avoid unaccompanied or separated children being accommodated in closed facilities due to a shortage of suitable alternative reception facilities 12.
5. STRENGTHEN CHILDREN AND FAMILIES’ RESILIENCE AND ENSURE PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT
Organisations working in the field of mental health and psychosocial support have underlined that, in addition to the human rights violations and hardships that refugees and migrants have fled in their home countries and encountered during their journey to Europe, mental health problems might be induced or aggravated by the way people are received and how protection and assistance is provided. According to UNHCR, IOM and MHPSS. net, while rates of disorders related to extreme stress, such as posttraumatic stress disorder( PTSD), are higher in refugees than in people who are not forcibly displaced, for most
9 _ See“ Report of the 2012 Day of General Discussion”, Committee on the Rights of the Child, para. 78. See also“ Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention- United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on Remedies and Procedures on the Right of Anyone Deprived of Their Liberty to Bring Proceedings Before a Court”, UNGA, A / HRC / 30 / 37, 6 July 2015, annex, in particular principle 21, para. 46, and guideline 21.
10 _ Joint General Comment No. 3( 2017) of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and No. 22( 2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the general principles regarding the human rights of children in the context of international migration and Joint General Comment No. 4( 2017) of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and No. 23( 2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on State obligations regarding the human rights of children in the context of international migration in countries of origin, transit, destination and return, http:// tbinternet. ohchr. org /_ layouts / treatybodyexternal / TBSearch. aspx? Lang = en & TreatyID = 7 & DocTypeID = 11.
11 _ For further information, see Global Campaign to End Child Detention, http:// endchilddetention. org /; Jacqueline Bhabha, Mike Dottridge,“ Child Rights in the Global Compacts”, 24 June 2017, http:// www. childrenonthemove. org / wp-content / uploads / 2017 / 02 / Working-document-English-11-Nov-2017. pdf.
12 _ In Greece, in September 2017, out of 2,778 unaccompanied and separated children, only 1,126 were placed in accommodation facilities hosting exclusively unaccompanied and separated children. 1,652 unaccompanied children were waiting for suitable placement, including 228 children living in‘ Reception and Identification Centres’ and 106 children in‘ protective custody’ – de facto detention – or in police stations.“ Situation Update: Unaccompanied Children( UAC) in Greece”, EKKA, 15 September 2017, https:// data2. unhcr. org / en / documents / download / 60150.‘ Reception and Identification Centres’( RIC) are, closed centres in border areas where entrants are identified and referred to asylum or return proceedings. Six such centres exist in Fylakio, Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos. See“ Country Report Greece”, Asylum Information Database( AIDA), 2016 Update, March 2017, http:// www. asylumineurope. org / reports / country / greece. See also“ Wrong Counts and Closing Doors: The Reception of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Europe”, AIDA, 2016, http:// www. asylumineurope. org / 2016.
143