PIL.OT / DEVELOPMENT
PIL.OTv0.57.7
Ingrid V Eagly addresses the difficulties unaccompanied migrant children face in accessing legal information, guardians and free legal assistance during international-protection and status-regularisation procedures in EU Member States. Without information they can understand and effective representation, children seeking protection are placed in an even more precarious position.
The analysis examines the Migration and Asylum Pact’s provisions on child-friendly, good-quality legal information, more rigorous standards for legal guardians and free legal counselling in administrative proceedings. Although the Pact’s acceleration and externalisation of border procedures and greater reliance on detention may deepen existing obstacles, its legal-service safeguards provide a framework for future programme design, advocacy and research.
Unaccompanied migrant children’s access to legal information, guardians and free legal counselling during international-protection and status-regularization procedures in the European Union
The article treats access to international-protection and status-regularisation procedures as inseparable from children’s ability to understand the process and obtain effective representation. It therefore places the Pact’s legal-support provisions within the concrete procedural safeguards that must be assessed alongside its more restrictive border and migration procedures.
International Journal of Refugee Law · 2026
DOI 10.1093/ijrl/eeag022