interest of the minors by considering them accompanied. Based on that argument, they reject family reunification requests of unaccompanied minors and therefore, prevent them from being reunited with a closer family member. Although the best interest of the minor should be of primary consideration when examining a family reunification request, the requested Member States proceed with the assessment of the case under the Dublin III Regulation in all take charge requests addressed to them. Spain, for instance, does not proceed at all with the examination of requests of unaccompanied minors based on Articles other than Article 8 of the Regulation. In one of the cases handled by GCR, the Spanish Unit stated that all requests concerning minors are to be examined under the criteria of article 8, while Article 17(2) was not applicable in this case as this is not considered to be a discretionary case by the Spanish Authorities. Thus, the case was finally rejected in 2021, without due consideration of the Best Interest Assessment Form and no explanation for the rejection was provided as required under Article 17 (2) of the Regulation EU 604/2013. The practice continued in 2022 and according to NGOs also France does not proceed with requests based on other submissions than Art 8. GCR is also aware of a case of an unaccompanied minor rejected in 2021 by the German Authorities because his uncle was a German citizen. As it is stated in the rejection letter, the Dublin III Regulation is not applicable in such cases. Yet, this reasoning is contradictory to Article 8 of the Regulation, which requires for the family member or/ and relative to be legally present. In the above-mentioned case, the best interest of the minor and the documents submitted to support the case were not taken into consideration. France however in 2022 accepted the family reunification request of a minor with his aunt who holds the French citizenship (information provided by the NGO “European Expression”). When applicants are not able to provide identification documents, DNA tests is the only way to prove the family link. Some countries however require a DNA test as a rule to be able to assess family links. Age assessments is another matter that might affect the outcome and the processing time of a reunification request. Member States question the results of the age assessments of unaccompanied children in case it is not conducted according to their methods. 2.1.2. The dependent persons and discretionary clauses Outgoing requests under the humanitarian clause concern mainly dependent and vulnerable persons and sent either when Articles 8-11 and 16 are not applicable or in cases where the three-month timeframe has expired regardless of the reason. Article 17(2) has been widely used for cases of subsequent separation as well as in the beginning of 2021 for cases in which the deadline for transfer was not met. 2.1.3. The relocation scheme In March 2020, the Commission launched a relocation scheme, under which vulnerable people from Greece would be transferred to other EU Member States, aiming to support Greece in its efforts to cope with the critical situation. Unaccompanied children and children with severe medical conditions who were accompanied by their families, were the two categories of persons of concern who could be included in the programme,341 if they have arrived in Greece before 1 March 2020 and no possibility to be reunited with a family member in another Member State was available. Sixteen EU countries participated in this scheme, which included France, Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and Bulgaria. The Commission implemented this programme with the assistance of UNHCR, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and UNICEF, following the eligibility criteria as set in the relevant SOPs. Homeless children, children living in precarious conditions, such as safe zone areas in camps and minors being previously detained, are considered eligible for the program. The process concerning the relocation of UAM consisted of three phases 342: 341 342 European Commission: Relocation of unaccompanied children from Greece to Portugal and to Finland – Questions and answers, available at: https://bit.ly/2OGowty UNHCR _ Explainer: Relocation of unaccompanied children from Greece to other EU countries, available at: https://bit.ly/2Rrhwln 76