children with adults puts children at an increased risk of abuse, including sexual violence,
and also violates international and national laws requiring the separation of adults from
children in detention.48
In the landmark European Court of Human Rights judgment of Rahimi v. Greece, the Court
found that the conditions of detention of an unaccompanied Afghan child for two days in a
center with poor hygiene and infrastructure amounted to degrading treatment.49
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has said that in the exceptional cases when
unaccompanied children are detained, “conditions of detention must be governed by the
best interest of the child.”50 The 2010 EU Action Plan on Unaccompanied Minors also
states that children “should always be placed in appropriate accommodation and treated
in a manner that is fully compatible with their best interests.”51
of March, 10 2015, available at www.echr.coe.int; Vasilescu v. Belgium, application no. 64682/12, Judgment of November 25,
2014, available at www.echr.coe.int; and European Court of Human Rights, Torreggiani and Others v. Italy, application nos.
43517/09, 46882/09, 55400/09 et al., Judgment of January 8, 2013, available at www.echr.coe.int.
48 CRC, art. 37(c); ICCPR, art. 10(b); EU Recast Directive 2013.33/E art 11(3); Law on Reception, art. Art 46 10(b).
49 See, Rahimi v. Greece, application no. 8687/08, Judgment of April 5, 2011, available at
www.echr.coe.int, para. 95.
50 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 6, para. 63.
51 European Commission, Action Plan on Unaccompanied Minors (2010-2014), COM (2010) 2313/3, http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:0213:FIN:en:PDF (accessed July 30, 2016), p. 9.
“WHY ARE YOU KEEPING ME HERE?”
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