On 30 May 2023, the Director of the OPU was one of the main speakers at a round table in the Senate with the participation of the Government Commissioner for Human Rights, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc., The round table dealt with the topic of the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and the situation of unaccompanied minors in EU countries and Greece. In his speech, the OPU Director Martin Rozumek highlighted the double standard of protection of the rights of refugees and child refugees in the EU – on the one hand, the much better treatment and support for Ukrainian children and on the other hand widespread violations of children’s human rights and asylum regulations at many European borders. The mistreatment of minors has been well documented in a fresh comparative report from the EU-27, published in May 2023 by Euromed Human Rights Monitor called Happiness, Love and Understanding: The Protection of Unaccompanied Minors in the 27 EU Member States. The Euromed report highlights the illegal return of unaccompanied children from borders in a total of 10 EU countries and ill-treatment, humiliation and beatings by police in 5 EU countries, violating the prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment and denying the right to seek asylum. Countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia are criticised for the illegal practice of holding child refugees behind bars in detention facilities, which has been very often condemned by the courts for contravening the law. The content of Euromed’s report is here
