In handling the influx of refugees, the European Union top court has issued a ruling on refugees who enter the region as minors. The ruling dictates that they can now apply to be reunited with their families even if they reach legal adulthood.
At the peak of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, 96,465 lone children applied for asylum in the EU, although numbers have fallen since then.
The European Court of Justice also ruled on a Dutch case in which authorities rejected an application by an Eritrean who arrived as a minor for her family to obtain temporary residence permits.
In this case study, the Dutch court determined that because the applicant was 18 at the time her paperwork was submitted that she was was too old be considered a “minor”.
Winning approval for refugees’ families to join them in Europe can become more difficult if they are considered adults.
However, the European Union court determined that the Dutch rejection breached EU law, saying it would otherwise be “entirely unforeseeable” for a minor to understand whether they had the right to seek asylum for their families.
The applications for family reunification are now to be made within three months of a minor obtaining refugee status
