debrief of the study visits - summary of the study visits_en.pdf · ccpi, it contacts the dgaspc...

DEBRIEF OF THE STUDY VISITS -

SUMMARY

With financial support from

the Criminal Justice Program

of the European Union

Judicial response to

crime committed by EU

unaccompanied juvenile

offenders

In cooperation with

Judicial response to crime committed by EU unaccompanied juvenile offenders 2

"This publication has been produced with the financial support of the Criminal Justice Programme of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the French National School for the Judiciary and its partners and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission." The French National School for the Judiciary warmly thanks all experts who contributed to the drafting of this document.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 STUDY VISIT IN FRANCE ....................................................... 4

2 STUDY VISIT IN SPAIN ........................................................... 9

3 STUDY VISIT IN SLOVAKIA ...................................................13

4 STUDY VISIT IN ITALY ...........................................................13

5 STUDY VISIT IN ROMANIA ....................................................25


1 STUDY VISIT IN FRANCE

June 3-5, 2013

Note: regarding France, our visit took place in Paris, which has a specific situation

of its own. This fact must be kept in mind when reading this report.

I. PRESENCE OF THESE POPULATIONS

In France, Isolated Foreign Minors may be divided into three broad groups:

Maghreb children; Eastern European children (from Romania, Bulgaria, and the

Balkans); and Middle Eastern (from Palestine, Bangladesh and Egypt) and black

African children. The largest migratory flow involves emigrants from Eastern

European countries (50%). Some parents are not present, others are simply not

visible: they stay in the camps, and send their children out to commit delinquent

acts. They sleep in caravans while the children sleep in tents or other caravans to

avoid crackdowns. There is a separation that can be seen between Paris, the site

of delinquent acts committed by these juveniles, and Seine Saint Denis (7000

persons), the site of their family life. Many camps are situated along the eastern

ring road of Paris, at the edge of Saint-Denis, one of which we visited. They are

characterized by precarious lodgings built of wood and sheet metal, and high levels

of unhygienic conditions (rats, trash, fires) and poverty.

II. REALITY OF THE DELINQUENCY PHENOMENON

In France, issues with the Romanian children began at the end of the 1990s,

with minors taking money from parking meters and prostituting. Today the

delinquent acts committed by these minors consist mainly of pickpocketing, theft

from ATMs, and fraudulent welfare applications. These criminal acts are carried

out in small groups made up of young boys and girls. Family/clan networks exploit

these children. The juveniles must bring in a certain sum of money every day and if

their goals are not met they are punished (even though the sanctions may be less


violent than in networks of Bosnian origin). These networks come from specific

cities such as Tendarei and Braila and they have specific specializations. They are

highly adaptable, and are perfectly abreast of French law. This is doubtless what

explains the significant drop in the age of these minors.

The Paris Prosecutor’s Office shared the following statistics with us. After a 150%

increase in arraignments from 2009 to 2011 (from 474 to 1188), these became

relatively stabilized in 2011 and 2012 (1100).

Parallel to this however, we found that there was a significant decrease in the age

of these minors: there was a rise among those under 13 years of age, for whom

French legislation prohibits imprisonment. These were nearly 35% of the minors in

question in the first 6 months of 2013. This implies that the phenomenon of youth

endangerment is getting worse; the exploitation of children of these ages is even

more unacceptable.

III. RESPONSES

Does any kind of educational response exist? At first glance, it seems there is

not. There is no possibility of working in an open environment, since these families

are not known and the camps are not entered. These minors, unidentified, with

unknown families and living in uncertain areas, refuse any placement. They

systematically run away from the centres where they are placed. So they cannot in

fact be placed.

The only thing provided under French law is the closed educational centres

(CEF), which allow minors to be held in placement by force following a criminal

conviction. The force imposed in particular is the threat that they may be

imprisoned. But the CEFs handle the serious juvenile offenders, and it seems that

it would be a difficult matter to send young Roma there.

A near-systematic remand and incarceration process has thus been

established. At Fleury Merogis, there are 96 places reserved for minors and

Romanians occupy 28 of these. It should be emphasized that when imprisoned,

groups of Romanian minors can cause problems with other inmates when they are

held together.

IV. COMBATING CRIMINAL NETWORKS

In view of this situation, the Prosecutor General and the Paris Prosecutor’s office

have launched major inquests and investigations against adults who exploit these

minors. This has resulted in significant work to combat their networks. The juvenile

delinquency division of Paris told us about its work focusing primarily on victimized

minors: its work has thus focused on children engaging in prostitution near the

Gare du Nord, but also on a prostitution network using young Bosnian girls (the

Hamidovic Case), as the Paris Prosecutor’s office and an investigating judge from

the JIRS [specialized interregional jurisdiction] explained. The JIRS prosecutors

conduct investigations on the regional level. It handles the biggest organized crime

cases, namely drug trafficking, pimping networks, and trafficking in human beings.


Several major inquests have been carried out by specialized departments

(OCRET) [central office for specialized measures against human trafficking]. They

have helped highlight the exploitation of these children, whether they are used

directly by their parents, loaned to others to pay off debts, or sometimes sold.

These investigations have resulted in heavy sentences, but in particular they have

led to getting these children to be seen more as juvenile victims rather than

juvenile offenders.

It should be pointed out that in France the legislation is not well suited for to

the situation of child trafficking victims, in particular because of the absence of

specific protections appropriate for minors. The law imposes a principle of consent

from minors for their placement, which they almost always refuse because of the

heavy clan/family pressure they are under.

It should however be pointed out that faced with the difficulty experienced by

the major bureaus in performing investigations and the complexity of legal

proceedings related to trafficking in human beings, prosecutor’s offices are more

systematically prosecuting parents for the criminal inducement of minors to commit

felonies or misdemeanours, or for fencing of stolen goods by adults, or for failure to

fulfil parental obligations. The idea is to thus increase the pressure on adults who

exploit children.

V. IDENTIFYING MINORS

As for the minors themselves, there have been some changes that should be

noted.

In France, the identification of minors poses a problem. Romanian youth

generally refuse to give their names or give false ones. They increasingly refuse to

be fingerprinted or photographed.

Significant work has nevertheless been done by the police in regard to

identification (thanks to support from Romania). When Romanian minors are

arrested in flagrante delicto, investigators contact a Romanian liaison officer on

secondment with the illegal immigration prevention coordination unit (UCLIC),

directed by commissioner BERETTI, and provide them as much information

regarding their personalities as possible, their photo, or their fingerprints if they

have them. The liaison officer then proceeds to identify these minors through the

Bucharest International Police Cooperation Centre (CCPI). The prosecutor’s office

can thus discover the minor’s true identity.

Thanks to some remarkable identification work done by police, more than 400 of

these minors have now been identified, compared to virtually none two years ago.

It has however been observed that this identification cannot be used nationwide or

Europe-wide.

A major amount of work needs to be done to disseminate this identity information,

through such means as fingerprint exchanges, both by police and the courts.

The fact that these children cannot be forced to give their fingerprints and that ad

hoc dossiers cannot be compiled on the unidentified minors constitutes a real

problem for protecting these minors. In fact, since they refuse any kind of


placement, most of them end up imprisoned when they are more than 13 years old,

and left in the street without any support when they are under 13.

Identifying the families

When a minor is identified upon request from a Romanian Liaison officer by the

CCPI, it contacts the DGASPC (Child Protection Department) of the Romanian

department where the juvenile’s domicile is located in order that a social

investigation can be carried out immediately. These investigations often come back

several months later, and are translated under the supervision of the UCLIC, and

are then communicated to the judicial authorities. A significant amount of work has

been done as part of these investigations to try to get Romanian authorities and

juvenile court judges to provide the elements the investigations need. Efforts to

identify the children have started bringing in significant elements that will help

identify the families. This is a key point for the future. But there too, no follow-up

has been established.

VI. SUPPORT AND MONITORING OF CHILDREN

On the judicial level some improvements have also been made.

It has however been observed that things have changed. The President of the

Paris Juvenile Court explained that efforts have been made by means of the

recruitment of two Romanian-speaking educators to the UEAT [court based

educational unit].

This service, which sees all minors brought before the Paris Prosecutor’s

office, works with an association called “Hors la rue” that specializes in working

with Roma children. It sends them over to it frequently.

The UEAT operating at the Juvenile Court of Paris informed us that juvenile judges

must receive an educational opinion before any criminal sentencing. The service

sees 2,300 children per year. An interview is done, and a summary of the minor’s

situation and their family background is put together, alongside elements that end

up used as evidence in the case files.

As for young Romanian minors, there are 13 educators at the Paris UEAT, 2 of

whom now speak Romanian. They manage to serve around half of the minors that

are arraigned. Three years ago minors just left and went out on their own, but now

the minors are heard, a dialogue is created, and some of them come back and

accept their placements (in exceptional cases).

During the visit to Fleury-Merogis prison, the PJJ (which has been far more present

on the premises in recent years) informed us that paradoxically enough it is the

arraignment and incarceration process that sometimes allows the triggering of an

educational dynamic. Imprisoned Romanian minors work hard in their educational

courses and are very engaged students; they rarely refuse what they are offered

and on the contrary become quite invested in it. They have a sort of paradoxical

appreciation for it. This sometimes leads to some real work getting done with the

minors and their parents, but that’s the exception, since there’s no connection back

to the open environment, the parents or caregivers are not known, and this makes


prospects for follow-up upon release from prison very difficult. A good number of

them request to be returned to Romania.

a) Return

According to the laws of France, minors cannot be expelled from French

territory in the framework of criminal proceedings. They can only be sent home as

part of a measure of educational assistance, if they consent, or through consular

channels. But children’s judges rarely take such actions because of the lack of

information they can obtain regarding the minors’ families. When return is to take

place, the Office of Immigration and Integration is in charge of accompanying the

minor. The transportation costs are supported by that office, which charters a plane

for the return trip (about 2 aircraft per month). Funds for return assistance have

dropped from €300 for adults and €100 for children to €50. This has resulted in an

80% decrease in voluntary returns and an increase in forced returns. Escorted

returns are possible, except for those Romanians who have settled.

The issue of return opened up a discussion in the group. Some of the members of

the group were surprised by what they perceived as a presumption by the juvenile

courts that a return to Romania would not be a good thing. Is it in the children’s

interest to not send them back if they want to go, or to send them even when they

don’t? Wouldn’t this mean leaving them in the hands of the networks that exploit

them? It emerged from this discussion that the most information possible must be

sought out regarding the situation of these children and their families, and that

effective follow-up must be ensured.

VII. REALITY OF CONTACT EFFORTS AND THE SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS

WITH THESE POPULATIONS

In France, there is notable work being done with these minors by educators,

particularly Romanian speakers. Thanks to them, the minors can be heard, and a

dialogue with the judiciary can be created. Some minors then come back to see the

educator, and sometimes accept a placement. Minors are also sent to the "Hors la

Rue” association, which offers various activities for them. Schooling these children

is a very complex matter because they generally cannot read or write. Added to

this are administrative constraints: demand for documents, evictions from camps,

etc. The dismantling of the camps poses a major problem, because Roma people

have often been in these places for years they are not offered any proposals for

rehousing.

The real problem in France is what came out of discussions with organizations

dealing with Roma: the inability to make a minimal contact with these populations.

Aside from the Red Cross, and Médecins du Monde, social services do not

intervene. Nevertheless it would doubtless be this kind of contact that could

change the situation. The systematic evacuation of the camps obviously reinforces

these people’s marginalization.


2 STUDY VISIT IN SPAIN

09-11 September 2013

DAY 1

- Visit the Provincial UCRIF ( Specific Regional Unit of National Police specially trained about THB, borders and migrant issues posted in the Autonomous Community).

Taking into account that this police unit is in charge of the unaccompanied foreigner minors Minor Register, EU experts had the oportunity to show how that register runs and what information is provided by the register.

So the visit was aimed to show how this special police unit acts when a unaccompanied foreigner minor is located committing an offense ( protection and criminal system); identification, detention, report, and protection measures.

With special reference to the identification- documentation of unaccompanied EU juvenile offenders, and Unaccompanied Minors register.

In this visit, the Inspector and Sub-Inspector explained:

.- Police intervention with unaccompanied foreigner minor, special reference to unaccompanied UE minors;

.- Detention.

.- Identification and Police register and review.

.- Report the abandonment situation and the offense to the Minor Prosecutor office.

.- Special reference to the victim of human trafficking and unaccompanied UE juvenile offenders.

.- Transfer to the Reception Center.


.-Relation with Minor Prosecutor office, Trafficking, and migrant issues Public Prosecutor, regional government and diplomatic missions.

The UE experts had the opotunity to visit the facilities, minors cells included.

.- Visit Reception and care Centre “Verge de Lledó”. Local Goverment

Afterwards, the Eu experts visited the Reception and care centre “ Verge del Lledo”.

The Director explained the protection sistem, and how they work with minors, bearing in mind that the minor will be placed there only for 45 days ( Recepcion services)

In the visit, The Reception Centre Director and the personal ( educators and social workers) showed round us the facilities, but also they explained us how they work with foreigner unaccompanied minors;

.- Abandonment assesment (urgenty)

.- First steps to achieve the assimilation the minor; education, health and social care.

.-Relation with Minor Prosecutor office and Trafficking and migrant issues Public Prosecutor

The director explained to Eu experts, when the 45 period, in the reception center, expires, foreigner unaccompanied minor is placed to a protection centre as a way to find a durable solution for him/her.

They visited the care centre, the personnel showed round the facilities and explained us their daily work with minors, especially assimilattion stage..

DAY 2;

- Minors Public Prosecution Office.

-Tecnhical Team.

.-Juvenile Court.

In the visit, the Manager of the minor Minor Public Prosecutor, showed to the experts the investigation proceeding in which minors are involved (criminal) and the scientific referent exposed the specific efforts carried out to protect unnacompanied foreingner minor who are criminals or / and trafficking in human beings victims.


The Technical Team explained:

.- how they work with juvenile offenders, how they made the report to the public prosecutor office and to Juvenile Court.

.- how they act in case of out of Court Resolution.

.- problems that they face in case of foreigner unaccompanied minor offenders.

.- relation with Minor Prosecutor office.

The juvenile Court, is a specialised Court, in charge of prosecuting minors who have committed a criminal offence, issuing appropriate judgement and ordering its implementation.

The Minors Judge explained to EU experts his competences;

.- implementation of the measures imposed.

.- deciding on the proposals concerning the revision of the measures imposed.

.- monitoring the evolution of the minors during the measure imposed.

.- solving the petitions or complaints issued by the minors during the implementation of the measures.

.- visiting the minors at the detention centres and have interviews with the minors addressed into.

.- Recasting sistem

.- disciplinary system.

.- Visit the Re-education and release center. Judicial Measures.

.-Re-education centre. “Pi Gros”.Diagrama Foundation

.- Release program. Dagrama Foundation.

In this visit the Re education Centre “Pi Gros” Director ( close measures) and the Supervised release program ( open measures) Director explained how the professional team ( educators, psychologist and social workers) works with juvenile offenders and the problems they deal with foreigner unaccompanied minors offenders, specially, in the assimilation process. And relation with Minor Prosecutor office and Trafficking and migrant issues Public Prosecutor.

We visited all the falicities and the UE experts had the oportunity of speaking freely with minors and having lunch with them.


DAY 3;

.-Visit the Regional Government Office: Minor Section. Administrative- protection proceeding.

In this case, the visit was aimed to show how the regional administration works, in follow areas:

.- Foreigner unaccompanied minor Guardianship.

.- Foreigner unaccompanied documentation ( formalities with diplomatic missions).

.- Efforts carried out to locate the family.

.- Resident permit.

.- Administrative protection system.

.- Problems that regional administration deal with Foreigner unaccompanied minors.

.-Civil liability in case of committing an offense by them.

.-Relation with Minor Prosecutor office and Trafficking and migrant issues Public Prosecutor.

.-Social, education, health care- SUPPORT

.- among others

This visit was aimed not only to show how the personal team work ( social workers) of the Minor Section ( regional government), but also their organization ( the bases team network) and the different problems that they deal with when a Foreigner unaccompanied minor is located committing a crime:

.- Solve guardianship issues.

.- Minor documentation ( resident permit).

.- Locate the family. (whether it is possible)

.- Minor support; education, health and social care.

.-Relation with Public Prosecutor Office..


3 STUDY VISIT IN SLOVAKIA

10-13 November 2013

I. In Slovakia, there are no courts or public prosecutor offices specialised in juvenile cases. All of the cases involving juveniles appear before the district courts in first instance. The only exemption is a jurisdiction of the Specialized Criminal Court involving cases of criminal organization, corruption etc. The Regional Courts handle cases referred from the district courts in the second instance. Criminal liability of juveniles and proceedings:

aged between 12 and 14: there is no detention but a system of “protection detention”. Juveniles can be detained only in criminal cases. The Public Prosecutor can propose that the civil judge hand down an educational sentence.

aged between 14 and 18: they can be prosecuted but for those aged between 14 and 15 their liability is not total but related to their capacity of discernment when they committed the offence. Juveniles are subject to the same types of sentences as adults, but only up to one half of such sentences. Several procedural rules are specific to juveniles:

A juvenile must benefit from the assistance of a lawyer.

If the juvenile has no parents, it is the State that assumes that responsibility.

The Authority for the social and legal protection of children and social custody is present and can file an appeal. Referral must be made to the Authority if the case is brought to court. It acts as a party in the trial and throughout all the various stages of the proceedings.

Sentences other than imprisonment can be handed down, in particular probation when the potential sentence is less than 5 years.

Placement in a reform institution can be ordered up to the age of adulthood. The Public Prosecutor is responsible for the supervision of such institutions.

The Public Prosecutor is present during all court hearings and can be present at the interviews in pre-trial stage.

A juvenile victim will be heard by the Public Prosecutor; this is not necessarily the case if the juvenile is the perpetrator.

The prosecutor prefers educational measures rather than punitive sentences.


The basic idea is not to punish but rather to educate.

Proceedings normally take 2 months. There is a pre-judicial system (upstream from the jurisdictional stage).

The Prosecutor can prosecute subject to conditions. If accepted by the accused, the case will not go to court. Isolated Foreign Juveniles (IFJ) in Slovakia An identification procedure is implemented when there is doubt as to identity of juveniles. The law allows juveniles to be photographed and for them to be remanded in custody for 48 hours. If they are not identified, they are released and for unidentified juveniles no distinction is made between Foreigners and Nationals. They are entitled to administrative management, to a lawyer and to an interpreter. The police could take photographs and fingerprints for inclusion in the migrants file, shared with the EU through Interpol. The DNA could not be kept if the juvenile was no longer the subject of any prosecution or had been declared not guilty, and then had to be destroyed. The juvenile could be placed in one of the two existing specialised institutions for the time required to undertake the necessary investigations for their proper identification and that of the legal representatives. For the IFJ, fingerprints can be taken from children aged under 14 in cases of criminal proceedings. If that is not the case, they are left with an administrative procedure. We failed to obtain an answer as to whether or not there was a regional file of the IFJ with the police or the administration, or whether or not the PPO was informed by the police. A return to the country of origin is a regulated administrative measure. If the juvenile is involved in criminal proceedings, deportation to the country of origin is possible but will be enforced only if it has been possible to identify the legal representatives. If the children are in the street and no longer in school, sanctions can be applied. There are a few cases of Romanian or Bulgarian IFJ but Slovakia “exports” this category more than it imports. Slovakia was not necessarily faced with the problem. The IFJ entering Slovakia were merely passing through given that their destination was practically always one of the main European countries. Thus, 5 cases of Isolated Foreign Juveniles were recorded in 2013. Concerning the placement in a centre specialised in the supervision of juveniles, we were told that as far as the IFJ were concerned who had not committed any offence it was possible to impose a “quarantine placement” of 10 days in a detention centre. The possibility of keeping a juvenile for 10 days without any possibility of release was to be considered as a protective measure adopted to enable proper identification and determination of the age of the juvenile concerned. The means used to verify the real age of a juvenile include an examination of the bones and teeth. Any juvenile refusing to undergo these examinations is considered to be of age. For juvenile delinquents the decision of the judge carries. This brings us back to a classic judicial response: prison and conditional release.

II. Detention centre in Sucany - The prison, built in 1973, is for all (male) juveniles in Slovakia. It was decided to use it for adults too. Its theoretical capacity is currently 118 juveniles and 392


adults. On the day of our visit, there were 62 juveniles. Currently there are no juveniles aged under 14 and only 5 aged 15 (82% of the juvenile inmates are ROMA). - Management of the inmates involves three main thrusts: protection and security, training, physical and psychological health. - the system of evaluation of juveniles that is undertaken upon their arrival by a commission composed of a psychologist and social workers. The juveniles are placed in the centre according to two criteria:

their intellectual capacity;

their fitness for re-socialisation.

III. Social workers with juvenile delinquents - There are protection centres which bring together all the social workers of the relevant district. These centres take care of children in difficulty if the parents are divorced, or of their internment. They work on the juvenile’s environment in conjunction with educational partners and in particular with foster families. They offer educational management of juvenile delinquents, call upon as required the judicial authorities for a ruling of a protective measure. If the juveniles have committed an offence, the social workers can take care of them as well as of young adults needing help. The social workers are there to help juvenile delinquents and their families. They provide assistance in the investigation and decision of the magistrates (by providing input on the situation of the juvenile and his educational background). They examine in depth the problems of such young people offering alternatives to prison. The social workers accompany the juveniles throughout the whole procedure even if they are subsequently placed in detention. They continue to work with them after their detention, not through the judge but through the law. If the juvenile is not a delinquent, then it is the civil judge who intervenes, but in fact he has little power other than that of placement. Furthermore, the police can call upon the social services directly to undertake a rapid investigation (24 hours) to obtain a protective measure if necessary. The social services and the IFJ Social workers are frequently called upon for the IFJ. If the police cannot trace the identity of such juveniles and their representatives, the court will place them in one of the two specialised centres in Slovakia (one for men, the other for women) upon the decision of the civil judge, within 24 hours. The judge, as the legal representative of the juvenile as long as the parents have not been identified, will appoint an ad hoc administrator as his/her representative. There are few IFJ and very little delinquency in that group. The representatives of the social affairs division proposed, over and beyond the system of police cooperation that they take their proper place within a system of international cooperation between social workers through the custody centres given their possible knowledge of Slovakian families whose juvenile members might find themselves isolated in other countries of the European Union. The greatest difficulty in the protection of children in Slovakia was presented as originating from ROMA parents who send their children out to beg. As begging is not an offence, the parents are prosecuted on the basis of failing to fulfil their parental obligations of bringing up their children.


The Ministry of Social Affairs provides social allowances, which means that the ROMA families are obliged to cooperate with the social workers. The most effective approach is to take someone from the community as a kind of mediator to work with the community – which is developed in a European project. The essential element involves cooperation with the social workers. It is only if the system fails to work that it falls upon the judge. The judge, however, is only the last link in the chain and intervenes only if all else has failed. What matters most is the cooperation between the various institutions as only the social workers have contacts with the relevant populations. The judge benefits from all the information provided by the social workers which serves to determine his or her decision. In civil cases, the judge can take educational measures (we were initially told that this eventually involves a placement). On the other hand, there are no educational measures in criminal cases. The PPO can stop proceedings subject to conditions.

IV.

Governmental representative of the Roma Community The Office is obliged:

To Submit proposals of solution relevant to the various situation of the ROMA

Development of integration projects

Integration of the ROMA on the labour market

Implementation of a programme for the integration of people from the ROMA community in the security corps and municipal police (a programme financed by the EU)

Integration of the ROMA in the national police force

Implementation of a schooling programme in conjunction with the Town Halls. Situations with ROMA Community - there are approximately 402,000 ROMA in Slovakia, for the most part in the east of the country, living in ghettos. They do not form a homogenous group but are split into different groups. They are not accepted by the rest of society. The stereotyped image of them is that they dance, sing and steal. - the children do not want to go to school and no-one actually sends them - Education is not seen to be important with the ROMA - high level of unemployment- - the ROMA population is often insufficiently qualified - there are no specific (ethnic) statistics on delinquency involving the ROMA but there is a high level of delinquency within that community. - There is a specific police force which plays a preventive role the aim of which is to create a positive environment, a ROMA police which does not play any controlling role but which provides support - There are some 300 ROMA in the security corps which are part of the municipalities and work with the police - Special educators help the families without supervising them, with the support of the social workers - “street social workers” from the ROMA community are in contact with the community. They are employed by the municipalities with the financial help of the EU. It should be noted, however, that the social policies are not the same everywhere. - Another programme also encourages the integration of people from the ROMA community to act as mediators or educational assistants in schools. - There is an on-going debate in the country on the issue of stopping family allowances to families whose children are not in school.


V. Courts - the judge intervenes for a placement if there is clearly a case of poor education or if the parents are incapable of bringing up their children. He can also issue a written warning for the purpose of: forbidding the juvenile to go to certain places

obliging the juvenile to attend educational assistance in an open environment

taking other restrictive or cooperative measures (with the obligation to accept health, psychological and/or educational supervision). - as far as the IFJ are concerned - there are few cases - Question of the identification of such juveniles - when they come to Court they have already been identified - the response is above all educational, with priority given to measures other than imprisonment (probation, house arrest, etc.). Imprisonment is exceptional. - The majority of juvenile delinquents have already made themselves known on the civil level and more often than not have already been placed. Conditional detention does exist. - There are no electronic trackers, but house arrests. - there are very few cases of appeal


4 STUDY VISIT IN ITALY

17-19 February 2014

I. Monday morning

After being welcomed at the Juvenile Court by President Melita Cavallo, who also

gave us some essential information about the role of the Juvenile court in dealing

with the situation of unaccompanied minors in Italy, the Head of Department of

Justice’s Mrs. Caterina Chinnici pointed out that the accompanying of the minors is

of pivotal importance, whether they’re Italian or not. It is question of helping and – if

necessary - re-educating them, adapting solutions to their specific needs

Mrs. Chinnici said Italy has faced a high presence of European isolated foreign

minors between 2000 and 2007. This fact was due to the bursting of conflicts in ex-

Yugoslavia. The situation got better during the years following the end of the

conflict. The consequence of this situation was a hardly manageable number of

children without documents and with serious identity issues.

Italian operators employ lots of mediators, which allows foreign children to better

understand their cultural issues but also helps Italians to understand the culture of

these children and their families. Mediators are also really helpful to facilitate

children’s identification.

Working with parents, when they are identified, is also a key issue. They can take

part in their children reeducation process and in finding constructive educating

solutions.

Since these children do not have their families’ support, the process is certainly

more difficult for isolated foreign minors. It was also underlined that Department of

Justice’s services’ are highly involved in fighting discrimination. Thanks to the

European project COSMI, there’s a better cooperation between the State, local

authorities and associations.

As far as it concerns civil law, it is interesting to underline a specific aspect of Italy:


there is a real "civil response" strategy to cope with isolated minors’ issues. When

they are neglected, or their parents don’t take care of them, or they exploit them, it

is possible to withdraw child care, and even child custody and parental

responsibility. This practice is pursued when considering the appointment of a

guardian, and if conditions fixed by law are met (once the state of adoptability is

ascertained), adoption.

Juvenile Court’s Prosecutor Claudio De Angelis explained there are three

strategies to cope with isolated unaccompanied or accompanied minors:

- civil : therefore protection,(by protective and supporting measures ordered by

juvenile court and enforced by social services)

- penal : therefore punishment and reeducation

- administrative: therefore actual taking in care, often in “communities” (reception

centers).

Mr. Mario Rosario Ciancio (President of the civil Division of the Rome court)

speaking about his role of tutelary judge claimed that according to him

guardianship, even constrained, is the best solution in Italy. He considers it as a

necessary measure for the protection of isolated children.

Mrs. Antonia Bianchi, Representing the Children this Ombudsman Bureau

explained the role of this national authority, created in 2011 with the aim of

granting implementation of art. 31 of Italian Constitution and of all rights and

safeguards provided for children by U.N. Convention on the Rights of the child and

by other relevant international Charters.

Italy has also ombudsman for children at regional level, working in connection with

the national authority.

Monday afternoon

First-aid regional center (similar to the French DPJJ): Centro di prima accoglienza

(C.P.A.)

The board of directors explained us they cover the region with the greatest number

of young detainees (between 1/4 and1/3 of minors arrested on a national level).

Minors can be arrested under the double condition of flagrancy related to offences

for which a maximum period of 9 years of imprisonment (at least) is applicable

The Board acknowledges they are hosting a large number of Roma people,

although social workers usually do not have proper training to deal with them

The facility hosts about 500 minors per year. Minors brought to a reception center

can be hosted there up to 4 days. The measure must be validated at a hearing

before a judge. There are many possible solutions as an outcome of such a

hearing : one of the following precautionary measure (pre- trial measure ) can be

imposed (if the conditions, provided by law, are met):


* the obligation of performing certain tasks at home / at school

* the obligation of staying at home

* the placement in a “community center”/ educational center

* placement in a juvenile detention center (remand in custody)

The Board claimed that since the isolated foreign minors are alone, they don’t have

the same opportunities as Italians for access to non custodial precautionary

measures.

500 of the 700 minors hosted are foreigners and 400 of them are Roma people

coming from ex-Yugoslavian territories.

Women: Women are those who are whishing the most to change their lifestyle, but

they also have a feeling of belonging to their community. They told they don’t like

living in the camp, but also that they like being with each other. They are starting to

change the way they dress (which could be also useful for thefts, as they look like

being more similar to italian youngsters). A think-tank on Roma culture for women

(financed by a phone company) seeking to change their lifestyle has been set up.

Social mediation: It was tried to develop contacts between Roma people and the

Department of Justice, and to improve mediation in camps. Mediators have the

task to make people living in camps understand specific questions, to inform them,

to convince them to to be present at hearings, to read them documents...

***

II. Thursday morning : Directorate of Police forensic department support

in judicial investigations.

The Directorate is placed in the suburbia of Rome and disposes of multiple,

large facilities. The identification service identifies the subjects (Italian or

foreigners) from fingerprints. There is a national identification record system that

collects fingerprints on a national level also used for minors (AFIS - Automated

Fingerprints Identification System).

Taking fingerprints in Italy is allowed by the obligation of identifying oneself. This is

valid for dangerous people or suspects but also for people who refuses to reveal

their identity; thus storing pictures, fingerprints and anthropometric data is

authorized. The Constitutional Court declared that articles 4 of the Italian

Constitution authorizes these proceedings and that this doesn’t violate personal

freedom, even if the person is not accused of a crime.


The national identification record can be used for asylum seekers and is used in

the framework of Eurodac, the European record that allows to send asylum

seekers back where they did their first application.

A specially equipped ship staying nearby Lampedusa allows to immediately identify

people who reach the Italian coast through ships and boats. This makes the

identification of people smugglers (and unfortunately also of shipwrecks’ victims)

easier.

We were also showed laboratories and the system allowing to create really specific

age-based identification records: the system works comparing and crosschecking

data collected from bones, teeth, hands and other physiological data.

Visiting a Roma camp (Camping River - Via Salaria):

The camp is composed by a small wooden house (for reception and

administrative follow-up) and by construction site like houses placed on concrete

blocks. 136 people coming from identified families live here. They mostly are Roma

people but they come from different countries: Bosnia, Serbia, and other Balkan

countries and Romania. This aspect often creates conflicts or tensions among the

residents.

This is one of the 8 authorized camps of the city. Municipalities offer water,

electricity, sanitary facilities and educational support. In return, children are obliged

to attend a school. They are accompanied by social operators, they are offered

post-school activities and they are helped for job seeking. Eleven more camps

exist where the educational offer is not as rich, but they still have basic services.

On the other side, there are many non authorized camps where collaborating with

the residents is a more complex issue. There are 1500 people who live in

authorized camps and 6.500 who live in non-authorized camps. A special Police

unit works on all the camps and knows all their residents.

They stress the communitarian aspect as pivotal for these populations: it is indeed

the most important feature. Even if sometimes someone expresses the desire to

look for a job, these people are not raised in an individual culture and the only

viable solutions lean on this feature.

When asked about the reaction of Italian residents who live near the camp,

operators stated that they gradually got used to their neighbors; anyway, operators

are particularly vigilant to ease tensions or avoid damages. They stress that the

work on camp relies on mediators and on several NGO’s.

Visiting a reception center:


There are some big buildings, kind of depot from a former disused factory,

which are used to host 400 people, mostly Roma. Inside the building, lined up in

one or more aisles, there are loosebox-like containers, slightly bigger that a

caravan, where families live. They find shelter from cold weather and rain. There is

an administrative area with some rooms for the children, kitchens and restrooms.

The families are offered breakfast and dinner. There is a strong pressure to let the

children go to school; after-school activities are also offered.

Medical assistance and job counseling is offered by the staff of the centre.

Even if this is a (temporary) reception center, these families are hosted here for a

long time.

The next step of the process isn’t an individual apartment but a collective

residence.

The team stresses again the importance of communitarian culture. Indeed, their

principal resource is living together. Roma people are suspicious about school and

about individual, isolated solutions. They try to preserve their culture, which is –

first of all – being together. They have a lot of children, which is their mean to earn

money.

There are 4 reception centres of this kind nearby Rome, which depend

administratively from municipalities.

III. Tuesday afternoon

Visiting the prison, the Juvenile Detention Center of Casal del Marmo :

The facility is composed by several buildings in a large, calm area. It is quite

far from downtown but it is equipped with wide sport fields, a soccer field etc.

This prison is specifically dedicated to minors. It hosts young people from14 to 21

years old for offences committed between 14 and 18 years old. The male

detainees (27 in total) are distributed by age: there is a building for young boys

under 18 and another one for those over 18. Young girls are hosted in another

building, and are not divided by age.

There are 8 young girls, most of them from Romania. The female detainees hosted

in the building we are visiting are really young. One of them, aged 14 or 15, has a

child (the director underlines that since children can avoid mothers to be

imprisoned, they have many). These 8 young girls represents the female detainees

in Northern Italy. There are only 3 women prisons in Italy.

The educational team is composed by 10 educators and 3 psychologists; several

activities are offered: confections of pizzas, sewing training, masonry and most of

all school activities.


IV. Wednesday morning

A roundtable discussion has been organized at the Court of Cassation with

NGO’s representatives, associations representatives and social services

representatives. The debate is opened by the Court of Cassation’s Secretary-

General, who insisted on the fact that the problem represented by unaccompanied

European minors is at the same time institutional, social and cultural.

Mrs. Marcella Delle Donne, AIZO’s sociologist, made an extremely interesting

presentation about migrating movements in Italy. She explained us the country has

always been subject to this phenomenon.

Margherita Occhiuto, representing the unaccompanied minors’ service of the

Social services Department of the City of Rome, pointed out that since a

decentralization policy occurred during the 70’s, the responsibility of minor’s

assistance came back to local authorities. When they can’t find the parents, local

authorities must take care of children, whether they are Italian or not. It is

extremely important to put unaccompanied minors under guardianship and to give

them documents .

Sometimes it is difficult to understand their real desires. It is crucial to keep them

away from their exploiters.

The Community of “Sant' Egidio” representative explained that their goal is to

promote Roma people integration. They are really present in the camps, especially

in those of Rome. They are in contact with the institutions. They make sure camps

have the necessary equipment. Indeed, Roma people communities represent 0,6%

of the population in Italy.

Even if high-quality training are proposed, families do not trust them. We try to

involve parents in school activities and sports, especially in primary school. We try

to make them aware of their condition of victims.

Save the Children representative talked about Civico Zéro 2009 project. It is a day-

care center that also is a social helping network. They organize activities for

unaccompanied minors, Italians, Europeans or foreigners, traffic victims or youthful

offenders. The institute also helps children who reached Italy by boat from North

Africa.

Families make pressure on minors to make them leave the facilities where they are

hosted. The idea to convince them to attend a daycare center is valuable and

maybe even more valuable in this context.


5 STUDY VISIT IN ROMANIA

31 March – 2 April 2014

The structuring of the study trip took into consideration the widest possible perspective on how Romania has sought to regulate, from legal point of view and in terms social policies, the situation of unaccompanied minors, having as starting point the fact that in Romania unaccompanied foreign minors treatment is identical to the treatment of national minorities.

I. A) The first part of Monday - 03/31/2014 - has been a working meeting at Bucharest Court headquarters where were invited to attend judges specialized in solving criminal cases involving minors, judges specialized in resolving civil cases concerning minors unprotected, judges specialized in the treatment of requests for refugee minors, prosecutors and head of Probation office attached to Bucharest Court. At this meeting were presented the legislative provisions of the new criminal and civil codes, new rules of civil and criminal proceedings related to juveniles, statistical data, the views of people who provide assessment in the probation service, being presented some complete practical examples of two criminal cases involving juvenile defendants. Focus points of the discussion aimed at: - Establishing that national legislation is centered on the educational response; - The existence of judges specialized in juvenile litigation and indicate an experience which is in the pilot stage to create a specialized court for juveniles (Court for juveniles in Brasov); - Present internal legislative coordinates allowing identification of minors, how these data can be stored, checked and accessed; - Presentation of the conditions under which, in case of a custodial sentence, juveniles may be incarcerated, with a focus on highlighting the existence of centers dedicated only for minors and conducting educational courses in these centers; - Permanent existence of educational and psychological support in the execution of any sanction; - Providing special procedural safeguards in criminal and judicial investigation;


- The trend that is emerging in the practice of prosecutors not to go to court for minor offenses, but to apply administrative sanctions; - Were detailed conditions in which civil laws allow emergency measures, for the juveniles deprived of their parents protection, to ensure the protection of children; - Were presented conditions under which unaccompanied minors may submit a request for asylum and special safeguards prescribed by law for them; - All foreign participants were given folders containing extracts from national legislation and statistics, all translated into English.

B) Also on 31 March 2014 was organized a meeting with the leading officials of the National Authority for Child Protection, being presented national policies for social assistance to children unprotected and families in need. They insisted on: - Presentation of the relevant legal provisions; - Highlighting the role of the National Authority for coordinating all actions to protect children; - Presenting methods for registration of children in need; - Indication of the actual conditions in which national authorities can conduct social inquiry reports to be communicated to the European magistrates and internal tracking possibilities of how returned minors are protected; - Presentation of the national involvement in the process of returning the youth detected unaccompanied in other states, minors coming from Romania; - Punctually presentation of cooperation procedures established by the national with France and Italy; - Indication of all data and domestic centralized reports that could be a source of information within the European area, for the magistrates investigating files related to Romanian unaccompanied minors; - Present the Authority projects dedicated to the integration of the juvenile into society groups (Roma minors, minors whose parents have gone to work abroad, etc.) and the measures taken by the Romanian government to protect these types of children.

C) The afternoon of March 31, 2014 was devoted to a meeting that was attended by all decision makers involved in international police cooperation, the roundtable was attended by representatives of the Border Police and of the Police specialized in combating trafficking in persons, representatives of criminal record service, immigration police, Europol, Interpol and Sirene specialists.

The police workers showed in detail how the center for international police cooperation is organized, focusing on:

- The registration specifics of criminal acts committed by Romanian minors in the European space;


- The concrete manner in which foreign magistrates and police officers can directly access the Romanian Centre for International Police Cooperation; - Presentation of national centralized data that can be transmitted to foreign magistrates; - Present specific ways to investigate the files on trafficking cases; - Present, in concreto, all requests carried out with each of the European countries involved in the project for the identification of minors, their prosecution, obtaining reports and organize their return. II. In the second day of the visit, April 1, 2014 the work focused on presenting how local authorities conduct, concretely, the activities to protect children in need. At the beginning of the day, at the General Directorate for Child Protection headquarters in Ialomita were presented models of best practices in place at local level between city hall, courts, prosecutor's offices, social services and public education institutions to meet the demands of care in a community where Roma minors are a majority. Were identified priority objectives of providing their schooling, to ensure a healthy climate in family, indicating situations where juveniles deprived of their parental care can go to extended family or foster parent. In Ţăndărei town was held a second meeting attended by representatives of the Roma community, and people who have the capacity of local councilors, along with the Mayor of Ţăndărei and social workers charged with field work in the neighborhoods where Roma population is established. Social workers have shown concrete means resorting to solve problems in the community and the mayor insisted on the social-educational component of his programme aimed at social reintegration of all juveniles deprived of care or who have been the subject of a criminal investigation. Issues like poverty, lack of jobs and lack of involvement in the community, with the consequent of isolation, were subject to intense discussions. Also in Ţăndărei was presented an alternative for the protection of the minors deprived of their parents care, in a family type home, emphasizing that this alternative is becoming increasingly used, to the detriment of children placement in residential centers or foster care. On this occasion there have been discussions about the adoption procedure, showing that in Romania, national adoption is the rule and international adoption conditions are extremely restrictive. At the end of the day has been a meeting with decision makers in the nonprofit organization "Save the Children" in order to present this type of organization involvement in child protection work. The analysis on this occasion revealed a good collaboration between NGOs and public authorities, aimed at preventing crimes committed by minors in difficulty and focus on educational and protection policies, which eliminate a possible subsequent accession to a deviant behaviour of minors. The organization President detailed a working model employed with the Italian authorities on a social level, by creating a contact network of social workers that allowed the identification of unaccompanied Romanian minors in Italy and take the best steps to protect them, both by Italian and Romanian authorities. III. On the last day of the visit was a meeting at the National Agency for Roma, and the president of this agency made a presentation of historical traditions and specifics of this community. He also showed that there is a national strategy to integrate members of this community - centered on education, the presence of social and health mediators in the community and increase the educational level in order to access the employment in suitable jobs . It has been shown that there are cases of failure in integration policies, the Ţăndărei community being an example that was used to extract the foundations of a new strategy for addressing this issue. The President of the National Agency for Roma gave some practical examples the National Council for Combating Discrimination sanctioned, by its


decisions, the attitudes manifested in public that represented a discrimination against the Roma community .

*** This brief overview of the study trip is accompanied, in the attachment, by all documents provided to the colleagues who were part of the delegation that visited us.

debrief of the study visits - summary of the study visits_en.pdf · ccpi, it contacts the dgaspc...

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