Most EU Member States do not have specific legislation for separated migrant children (minors travelling without parents or legal guardians, but with a family member or another adult companion).
EMN ad-hoc query | Migrant children
What procedures do EU Member States have for separated migrant children?
5 March 2026
Guardians can be officially recognised in the Netherlands and 11 other Member States as responsible for the child. The form of this responsibility ranges from temporary care to formal guardianship. In 18 Member States, including the Netherlands, accompanying adults can also be recognised as legal representatives, for example, to support a child in the asylum procedure. Many countries also make informal arrangements. For instance, the child and the adult companion may be placed in the same reception centre.
The Netherlands considers any child without parental or guardian care as an unaccompanied minor. If these children apply for asylum, Nidos exercises (temporary) guardianship, but any adult can submit a guardianship request to the family court in the Netherlands.
Statistics are largely unknown
The exact number of children in each EU Member State is largely unknown. Statistics on migrant children travelling with a family member or adult companion are not kept in almost any country. Only Greece collects specific data on these children. Most Member States only keep statistics on unaccompanied minors nationals in general.
About the EMN Summary ‘Separated migrant children’
Children travelling without parents or guardians, but with another adult companion, are called 'separated migrant children'. Legally, there is no distinction in European asylum law between minors travelling alone and those travelling with an adult. This affects how their accommodation and support during the asylum procedure are arranged. The European Migration Network investigated whether EU Member States have special laws or arrangements for separated migrant children through an ad hoc query.
*Participating countries: Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), Cyprus (CY), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Finland (FI), France (FR), Greece (EL), Hungary (HU), Ireland (IE), Italy (IT), Croatia (HR), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Netherlands (NL), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Slovakia (SK), Slovenia (SI), Spain (ES), Czech Republic (CZ), Sweden (SE)
**An ad-hoc query (AHQ) is an EMN tool to collect information on migration and asylum policies in EU Member States and observing countries of the EMN.
