Project

Information video for and with refugee children on the appellate asylum procedure in Belgium

Code
BOF/MVF/202402/027
Duration
01 June 2024 → 31 May 2025
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund
Research disciplines
  • Humanities
    • Human rights and justice issues
    • Animation film
    • Documentary film
  • Social sciences
    • Ethnicity and migration studies
    • Administrative law
    • Human rights law
Keywords
right to information children's rights information video child friendly justice asylum procedure refugees
 
Project description

It is inevitable that refugee children come into contact with the legal aspects of an asylum procedure. When the Belgian authorities reject their request for asylum, they can appeal to the Council for Alien Law Litigation (CALL). Then, children, along with their parents or guardian, appear before an asylum judge who re-evaluates their decision. Extensive ethnographic research at the CALL and interviews with children who have experienced the procedure themselves, indicates that children are hardly informed about the course and impact of the hearing. This lack of information leads to high levels of stress, uncertainty and confusion, failing children’s right to be heard and be safe during encounters with a judge. An informational video would fill this gap. Children speak for themselves about how a hearing at the CALL unfolds. From their own experience, they inform other children, explain what to expect from a hearing, and contribute to a more child-friendly asylum appeal procedure.