the moment when an unaccompanied child
arrives in a Member State”. Some flexibility
still remains since the text does not explicitly
require for a guardian to be appointed from the
moment of arrival, but rather an obligation to
take the necessary measures for a guardian to be
appointed.
The Commission also proposes that the number
of unaccompanied children that guardians may
be in charge of should not render them unable
to perform their tasks. Member States should
monitor that their guardians adequately per-
form their tasks and should review complaints
lodged by unaccompanied children against
their guardian. The EP report supports this
provision and specifies that guardians may not
be in charge of more than 20 unaccompanied
children.
Access to the labour market
The Commission proposal reduces the
time-limit for access to the labour market from
no later than nine months to no later than six
months from the date when the application for
international protection was lodged.
Dublin Regulation
The Dublin Regulation 14 aims to determine the
Member State responsible for processing an
application for international protection in order
to ensure that one and only one Member State
examines each application.
There are several reasons why a particular EU
Member State may be responsible for examin-
ing an application for international protection.
In the case of unaccompanied children, if the
child has a parent, spouse, child or sibling
who is legally present in a Member State, that
Member State will be responsible for examining
the child’s asylum request unless this is not in
their best interests. If this is not the case but the
unaccompanied child has an adult aunt, uncle or
grandparent who is legally present in a Member
State and who following an individual exami-
nation, it is established that he or she is able to
take care of the child, then that Member State
is responsible for the asylum application of the
child provided this is in his or her best interest 15 .
In the case of unaccompanied children who
have no family members or relatives legally re-
siding in another EU Member State, the country
responsible for examining the asylum request
is the one in which the child is present and has
lodged an asylum application, provided that it is
in his or her best interest 16 17 .
14 _ Regulation (EU) No 604/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council Establishing the Criteria and Mechanisms for Determining the
Member State Responsible for Examining an Application for International Protection Lodged in One of the Member States by a Third-country
National or a Stateless Person (Recast), European Union, O.J. L 180/31, 26 June 2013,
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:180:0031:0059:en:PDF.
15 _ See “Unaccompanied Children and the Dublin III Regulation”, European Network of Guardianship Institutions, 2016
https://engi.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Unaccompanied-Children-and-the-Dublin-III-Regulation.pdf.
16 _ European Database of Asylum Law (EDAL), CJEU - C-648/11 The Queen on the application of MA, BT, DA v Secretary of State for the Home
Department (June 2013
http://www.asylumlawdatabase.eu/en/content/cjeu-c-64811-queen-application-ma-bt-da-v-secretary-state-home-department
17 _ For information on the ongoing process to review the Dublin regulation, see: European Commission, Proposal for a Regulation of the European
Parliament and of the Council Establishing the Criteria and Mechanisms for Determining the Member State Responsible for Examining an
Application