Since the 21st of July, 109 foreign nationals who have no legal basis to be in the country have been detained in Estonia, and more than 50 of them insist they are unaccompanied minors, writes ERR News.
Indrek Aru, head of the Northern Prefecture of the Estonian Border Guard, said that 119 foreign nationals are currently staying in the country’s migrant centers. Since the 21st of July, 109 people who illegally crossed the Latvian-Belarusian border have been detained in Tallinn. No migrants have been detained elsewhere in Estonia. 30 suspected minor migrants are currently staying at the asylum seeker center in Raes parish. 19 migrants have been returned to Latvia.
Aru pointed out that of the 109 detained migrants, more than 50 have stated that they are minors, but these are only allegations, and several individuals have provided contradictory information – one day a migrant says he is 30 years old, but the next day insists that he is only 16. The border guard chief added that a person with a long beard and wrinkles around his eyes cannot convince the police that he is a minor. By lying about his age, the migrants hope to be treated differently and more favorably. Aru said that in this way they are trying to avoid ending up in a detention center, and want to achieve placement in accommodations where everything is provided.
Indrek Juss, a senior specialist at the Estonian Social Insurance Agency, told ERR radio that about 30 migrants who are allegedly minors are being held at the Rae municipality accommodation center. According to the law, the municipality must provide them with guardianship, and on the 12th of August it asked the Social Insurance Agency for help. Juss said that
the unaccompanied minors are believed to be from Ethiopia and Eritrea and are over 16 years old.
Communication with the migrants is being carried out through two interpreters, first from Tigrinya to English, and then from English to Estonian.
Aru said that age poses a problem if the minor is unaccompanied, because then a legal representative, who is an employee of the local municipality, must first be appointed. Only then can other procedures be started. In addition to determining the country of origin and identity, it is necessary to verify the age. Currently, the border guard believes that most of those who claim to be minors are actually older, but this is not a case of age being assessed based on what one police officer says. The assessment is carried out by a commission of experts, which also includes doctors.
The first talks with the detained migrants have now taken place, but it is too early to judge the results.
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