Undocumented children

Last update: January 2026

1. What is an ‘undocumented child’? How do they become undocumented?
2. How many undocumented children live in Europe?
3. What does it mean to grow up undocumented?
4. Can undocumented children go to school? Can they go to a doctor?
5. How do EU migration policies impact migrant and undocumented children? How many children are affected?
6. Do European countries deport children? Do they detain children?
7. What happens to (undocumented) children when they turn 18?
8. Can undocumented children and young people regularise their status?

What is an ‘undocumented child’? How do they become undocumented?

At PICUM, we use the term ‘child’ rather than ‘minor’ in line with the UN Child Rights Convention.  

An undocumented child is a child who does not have the permission to live in the country they are living in. They have an ‘irregular residence status’. Most live with their parent(s), but some do not – these we call ‘unaccompanied children’.

Children become undocumented for different reasons. A child’s residence status is usually dependent on their parent’s status, and children usually become undocumented if their parent loses their residence or work permit. Undocumented children can also be born in the EU to undocumented parents. Unaccompanied children (those living without their legal guardian) may be undocumented because their asylum claim or other residence procedure was rejected, or because they did not lodge one. Major shifts in policy, like Brexit, can also cause children to become undocumented.

Some countries, such as France, do not require children to have a residence permit. For them, their undocumented status becomes a reality when they turn 18.

Migrant children may change residence statuses during the course of their childhood, youth and adulthood, transitioning from one status into another and back. E.g., from documented to documented migrant and back, or from migrant to citizen.

How many undocumented children live in Europe?

No one knows exactly. There is no reliable estimate of the number of undocumented children in Europe. Some organisations have attempted to credibly estimate the number of undocumented children and/or young people in specific countries. For instance, between 190,000 and 241,000 undocumented children were estimated to live in the UK in 2017, with most of them based in London. Another report counted 146,773 undocumented zero-to-19-year-olds registered in the census in Spain in 2019. Nearly 38% of these children were 4 years old or younger, indicating that a large number of undocumented children live with their parent(s). In addition, at least 112,315 undocumented children came into contact with the police, mainly in Greece, Germany and Italy.

What does it mean to grow up undocumented?

The majority of undocumented people, including children, live relatively settled lives. A 2020 survey of 1,000 undocumented people living in Ireland found that 75.5 percent were living in Ireland for more than five years, for example. Of the 185 children whose parents were surveyed, 68 percent were born in Ireland.

Undocumented children can live very different lives to each other, however. Some will live with one parent, while others live with both and/or extended family. Some have lived their entire lives in one city or village, while others have moved cities, and yet others live in encampments. And while most undocumented children live with their parents, some do not. Unaccompanied children, children who live without their parent(s) or legal guardian, should be granted a guardian to advocate for and protect their rights.

Whatever their personal situation, their lack of a secure residence status impacts most, if not all, facets of their life. Undocumented children often live in inadequate, unsafe housing and in poverty. They (very likely) cannot enjoy the same basic services other children in the EU can. They also experience chronic and toxic stress. All of these things harm their mental and physical health and development.

For more on this, read PICUM’s 2021 report ‘Navigating Irregularity: The impact of growing up undocumented in Europe’.

Can undocumented children go to school? Can they go to a doctor?

All children have the same fundamental rights, regardless of their residence status. Children’s rights are defined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and enshrined in both the Treaty of the European Union and the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights – all of which apply irrespective of a child’s residence status.

However, the reality differs from country to country. In all EU member states, it is compulsory for children to attend schooling for at least nine years. Yet in many countries, the legislation and policy governing compulsory education refers to “all children”. Depending on the country, this implicit inclusion of undocumented children results in limitations within the education system. Implicit inclusions may create situations in which undocumented children cannot take official exams, receive certification for studies completed or undertake vocational training courses, as these can depend on regional, local or individual administrative decisions. It also means that undocumented children are more easily excluded from important but non-compulsory education, like early childhood education and care.

While emergency health care cannot be denied in any EU member state, national laws regarding access to health care for undocumented children vary greatly across Europe. In most member states, undocumented children receive health care under the same conditions as undocumented adults, with no extra protection. However, children’s health may not only suffer because of a lack of continuous or specialist care, it can also suffer because of the migration enforcement policies in place and the reality of living in an irregular migration situation (e.g., poor housing conditions, stress, etc). For more in this, read PICUM’s 2023 report Migration status: A key structural social determinant of health inequalities for undocumented migrants

Furthermore, undocumented children and families often hesitate to reach out to service providers, including medical professionals, due to fear that the immigration authorities would be informed about their presence if they seek help. Such practices are not allowed under the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Service provision and immigration enforcement measures should therefore be clearly separated, ensuring a so-called ’firewall’, to assure that undocumented children and families have access to their rights without fear for detention, deportation or separation. For more on this, read PICUM FAQ on reporting obligations and ‘firewalls’.

Irrespective of whether undocumented children can go to a doctor or not, having an irregular or precarious residence status gives rise to issues around identity and belonging. Undocumented children and youth have often talked about of the difficulties they face and the hope they cherish to contribute fully to the country they live in.

How do EU migration policies impact migrant and undocumented children? How many children are affected?

EU migration laws apply to adults and children alike. Indeed, millions of children are affected by EU migration policies every year. In 2024, the last year for which there is comprehensive data,

• 3,072,960 children were living in the EU on a valid residence permit, including 540,445 new residence permits based on family, education, employment or other grounds (Eurostat, migr_resvas, migr_resfas)
• 253,380 asylum applicants were children, representing 25,4% of the total number, and including 33,160 unaccompanied children (Eurostat, migr_asyappctza, migr_asyunaa).
• 112,315 undocumented children came into contact with the police, mainly in Greece, Germany and Italy. This represented 12% of the total number of undocumented people the police reported encountering (Eurostat, migr_eipre)
• 25,190 children were ordered to leave the territory, mainly by Germany, Sweden and France. Orders against children represented 5.6% of the total number of orders issued last year (Eurostat, migr_eiord, migr_eiord2).
• At least 8,895 children were deported to a third country, mainly by Germany, Spain and Sweden. These deported children represented 8% of the total number of deportations in 2024. (Eurostat, migr_eirtn).

While some migration policies help children, e.g. to join parents who have found a job in the EU, other EU migration policies deliberately or inadvertently harm children.

For example, the Migration and Asylum Pact files (e.g., the Screening Regulation, Asylum Procedures Regulation, the Return Border Procedure Regulation and the Eurodac Regulation) will mean more, longer detention for children and their families and an uncertain access to basic procedural guarantees like a lawyer or adapted interviewing methods. At the same time, child protection authorities may also not (systematically) involved or present at critical moments, e.g. in border spaces. Guardians may also have up to 30 (even 50!) unaccompanied children under their wings – much too many to support properly.

These gaps stem, in part, from the fact that children’s interests are rarely at the center of EU or national policy making, even though they should be.

For more on children’s rights in the Pact, see PICUM’s 2024 analysis.

Do European countries deport children? Do they detain children?

All Member States order children to leave their territory, which can result in deportation. While most, if not all, member states deport families with children, not all member states deport unaccompanied children.

Of the 25,190 children ordered to leave the territory in 2024, the majority were boys (63%), the rest girls (37%). Of the 8,895 children deported in 2024 (the majority children in families), 54% were boys and 46% were girls, according to Eurostat. 

Returns of children are highly concerning because various studies have shown the serious impact of forced returns on children. For example, one in three child returnees interviewed in Kosovo had symptoms of post- traumatic stress disorder, according to UNICEF research. Furthermore, research by Save the Children showed that 75% of children deported to Afghanistan did not feel safe during their return, with more than half reporting instances of coercion or violence – and this includes children who returned voluntarily. Multiple testimonies by people who have been deported attest to the traumatic impact that the whole process has on individuals – many of whom are children or young people.

These negative consequences are possible for two reasons. First, no European country has a fully-fledged best interests procedure to determine what durable solution (integration, remigration or return) is in the child’s best interests, even though children should only be returned to a country if a life in that country is in their best interests in the long run. Second, returns (both voluntary and forced) often rip children from their schools and friends, often the only place they’ve called home, in a harsh and cold way. Departure is rarely prepared well, and has involved being lifted out of bed in the early hours of the morning without warning and being transferred to closed detention centers. 

UN experts have made it clear that detaining children based on the children’s or their parents’ migration (residence) status is a human rights violation and is never in the best interests of a child, whether they are unaccompanied or with their families. Moreover, well-established evidence shows that even short periods of detention have a long-lasting impact on children’s physical and mental health and their development. What is more, governments have committed to ending the detention of children from migration purposes in the Global Compact for Migration.

However, the EU is still far from banning the practice and existing and proposed legislation. The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum allows the detention of children during asylum and border procedures. This includes not only ‘formal’ detention, but also other forms of containment which might amount to de facto detention in screening and border procedures. Today, border procedures can last anywhere from 3 days to 24 weeks, depending on how their asylum application fares and can even last 33 weeks if the Member State declared being in a crisis situation. If the return framework is updated by the adoption of the new ‘Deportation’ Regulation as proposed by the European Commission, children in return procedures may even be detained for up to 24 months. Member states even proposed to extend the duration of detention up to 30 months. Longer – if not indefinite – detention periods could be possible for children who are considered a ‘security risk’. Governments and EU institutions defend this policy by arguing that detention centers would be adapted to children and their parents’ needs, and thus not be harmful. However, being detained in and of itself harms children in the short and long run, even when they have access to lessons or a playground. Limiting people’s freedom – incarceration or detention – is not for nothing the harshest way our societies punishes people.

Even though member states detain children (either in detention centers, through alternatives to detention, or through de facto detention), member states do not (have to) report these numbers to Eurostat. That means that there is no official comprehensive data on immigration detention in Europe. What little data exists indicates that 6,555 children were detained in 14 EU countries in 2016. Some children were detained for 195 days (6.5 months). In 2020, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency found that EU member states which tend to detain children more often (France, Greece, Malta, Poland and Slovenia) witnessed an increase in child detention between 2018 and 2019.

What happens to (undocumented) children when they turn 18?

Many children in migration who turn 18 face challenges, which are commonly referred to with the term ‘ageing out’, a term borrowed from the child protection sector. By ‘ageing out’ we refer to the situation where children lose rights and protections when they turn 18, which happens while the children go through a broader psychosocial change: their transition from childhood to adulthood.

Up until the age of 18, children have rights as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, this means that when a child turns 18, can no longer rely on this protection and the associated support and services. How this affects children’s lives depends on a few things, including their residence status and whether they are supported by their family or not. Unaccompanied children often experience a jarring transition, with support ending from one day to the next, especially when they did not secure a long-term residence status before turning 18. Practical obstacles to a safe and supported transition into adulthood will most likely include discontinued access to education, financial support and, in case of unaccompanied children, housing and their guardian. Crucially, very few unaccompanied children are being prepared for this change, even though about 70% of them are 16 or 17 years old and will soon turn 18.

While people have developed projects and services to support young people across the continent, many still find themselves without support from one day to another and without the necessary life skills to navigate this transition. It is therefore crucial that, one, children are prepared for the loss of rights linked to their coming of age, starting at least six months before turning 18. Two, measures should be put in place to prevent children from transitioning into adulthood without a secure residence status. That would require putting in place adapted regularisation mechanisms.

Can undocumented children and young people regularise their status?

Children and young people’s ability to regularise their status depends on the country they live in and on their ability to overcome the many practical and financial barriers to regularisation.

‘Regularisation’ refers to any process or procedure through which someone can obtain a residence status from a relevant government authority authorising – ‘regularising’ – their stay in the country they residence in. The undocumented person applies for these procedures from inside the country, in contrast to residence and work permits which have to be applied for from another country. Visit this webpage for more on regularisation.

All countries has the freedom to develop regularisation procedures, and a variety of grounds exist across the world. Grounds for regularisation include (past or future) work, family unity, child rights, victimhood, humanitarian needs, the inability to return, social ties, studies or training, persecution (asylum), and medical grounds, for instance. These in-country residence procedures exist in addition to international protection procedures, such as the asylum procedure which may lead to a refugee status or subsidiary protection status. Some countries have developed structural regularisation mechanisms or launched time-bound programmes specifically for young people who have aged out. Spain overhauled their migration law in 2021 to prevent unaccompanied children from becoming undocumented at 18, for instance. Other countries have (had) measures or programmes for children or young people, specifically. Norway and The Netherlands, for instance, both had regularisation programmes for children in 2013. France does not have residence requirements for children while they are underage, and has regularisation mechanisms to regularise their status at 18.  

However, even when regularisation procedures exists, regularising one’s residence status is often difficult to do. Procedures are complex, ever-changing, expensive and/or long, and may require paying a lawyer or an application fee, which can be prohibitively expensive. Eligibility criteria can be highly restrictive, or difficult to prove. The outcome can also be difficult to predict when decisions are discretionary. Because of these barriers, many children, young people (as well as adults) are unable to regularise their residence status, even when procedures exist and they could meet the criteria. That is why PICUM promotes ten key elements that make regularisation procedures fairer and more effective.

In addition to these ten key elements, regularisation procedures should be designed with the people in mind – in this case children and young people. That means integrating a best interests of the child procedure in migration law, ensuring temporary residence permits for children are at least twenty-four months long and last for at least another nine months after the child turns 18, so they can transition onto another permit. If the child had been placed in care, the permit should last until the end of aftercare policies. Procedural safeguards, like free legal aid, should also be in place so the child or young person receives the support they need.

For more on this, read PICUM’s resources on regularisation and access to a secure residence status.