Reconceptualising Unaccompanied Child Asylum Seekers and the Law

Unaccompanied child asylum seekers are among the world's most vulnerable populations, facing a triple burden of vulnerability due to their age, seeking asylum, and separation from their parents. This book reconceptualizes the relationship between these children and States, proposing a new conceptual framework that applies international human rights law, childhood studies, and vulnerability theory scholarship to analyze State obligations. It provides a robust analysis of the operation and impact of laws on vulnerable populations, a taxonomy for articulating the gravity of any consequent harms, and a method to prioritize recommendations for reform. The book illustrates the framework's utility using Australia's treatment of unaccompanied children as a case study, offering valuable insights for practitioners, non-government organizations, advocates, policymakers, and the general public interested in advocating for the rights of vulnerable populations.

Format: Hardback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 30 September 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Unaccompanied child asylum seekers are among the most vulnerable populations in the world, and their numbers are on the rise. The combination of their age, their pursuit of asylum, and their separation from their parents creates a unique and acute triple burden of vulnerability. This precariousness has long been recognized in international human rights law. However, human rights-based responses have been subordinated to the progressive global securitization of irregular migration through interception, interdiction, extraterritorial processing, and immigration detention. Such an approach necessitates an urgent paradigm shift in how we comprehend the needs of these children, the impact of punitive border control laws on them, and the responsibility of States to these children when they arrive at their borders seeking asylum.

This book reconceptualizes the relationship between unaccompanied child asylum seekers and States. It proposes a new conceptual framework by applying international human rights law, childhood studies, and vulnerability theory scholarship to analyze State obligations to respond to these children. This framework incorporates a robust analysis of the operation and impact of laws on vulnerable populations, a taxonomy for articulating the gravity of any consequent harms, and a method to prioritize recommendations for reform.

The book then illustrates the frameworks utility using Australias treatment of unaccompanied children as a case study. This book illuminates key learnings from human rights law, childhood studies, and vulnerability theory and transforms them into a new roadmap for law reform. As such, it will be a valuable practice-based resource for practitioners, non-government organizations, advocates, policymakers, and the general public interested in advocating for the rights of unaccompanied child asylum seekers.

Weight: 540g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032196299