Protection of Migrant Children’s Rights in Greece, France and in the UK: Challenges and Responses

1 November 2015 - 30 July 2016

Project webpage(s)

Protection of Migrant Children’s Rights in Greece, France and in the UK: Challenges and Responses

About the research

The project’s overarching aim is to develop and enhance strategic relationships with major NGOs and legal practitioners working on the protection of migrant children in Greece, France and in the UK in order to use research findings to inform the practical approaches to the current refugee crisis.

The project aims to re-evaluate the specific challenges posed by the current migration crisis in relation to the protection of migrant children at a multidisciplinary full-day workshop organised in collaboration with the Refugee Law Initiative (University of London, School of Advanced Study) on the 4th July 2016.

Workshop programme

Protection of Migrant Children’s Rights in Greece, France and in the UK: Challenges and Responses

Workshop – London 4 July 2016 – room 349 Senate House

Please register here.

9:15-10:00am    Registration and opening

10:00-11:15am    Keynote speech by Frances Webber – ‘The best interests of the child?’

Vice-chair of Institute of Race Relations Council of Management and a former barrister who specialised in immigration, refugee and human rights law until her retirement in 2008. She is the author of several influential books in the field of immigration, refugee and human rights law, including Borderline Justice: the fight for refugee and migrant rights (2012).  She lectures part-time at Birkbeck College and speaks and writes on migration and human rights issues. 

11:15-11:30am    Coffee break

​11:30am-1:15pm    Reception and detention of migrant children: gaps between law and practice 

•    Migrant children reception and detention (Dragan Nastic, UNICEF-UK)
•    Conditions of reception of migrant children in the UK (Ilona Pinter, Children Society) 
•    Legal recognition of migrant children’s composite vulnerability: which implications for States? (Ana Beduschi, University of Exeter)
•    Open discussion, sharing of experiences, and identifying points of action to be agreed upon 

1:15-2:30pm    Lunch 

​2:30-4:15pm    Migrant children and asylum procedures: convergences and divergences 

•    Consistency of asylum procedures in the UK (Nick Gill, University of Exeter)
•    Age assessment in France: challenges for legal practitioners (Leila Abdouloussen, Barrister in France) 
•    The current situation of migrant children in Greece (Kyriaki Patsianta, Barrister, Network for Children’s Rights, Greece)
•    Open discussion, sharing of experiences, and identifying points of action to be agreed upon 

​4:15-4:30pm    Coffee break

​4:30-5:00pm    Final remarks and conclusion