HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION FOR VULNERABLE ASYLUM APPLICANTS

Venetikidou Aikaterini 8 mentioned years between 2012-2019, AIDA 27 reports that 27 out of the 67 declared unaccompanied children who applied for asylum in 2018, were later determined to be adults, and 7 out of 78 in 2019. As mentioned earlier in this section, the CACR is the only reception centre for asylum-seeking children in Portugal. Last year alone, the CACR accommodated a total of 78 unaccompanied minors, a number that surpasses its low capacity which stands at 13 places. Thus, as of 2019, the CPR revised its accom- modation policy for unaccompanied children and coped with the shortage at CACR by housing temporarily some children at the Centre for Refugees ( Centro de Acolhi- mento para Refugiados - CAR ), while some other young applicants at more advanced stages of the integration process were transferred from the CACR to Centre for Ref- ugees II ( Centro de Acolhimento para Refugiados II - CAR II ) in a process of supervised autonomy ( autonomia de vida ) (AIDA, 2019). The statistics on the demographic data specifically for the unaccompanied minors is not clearly provided by neither the SEF nor the CPR. However, the CPR provides a few data regarding the nationalities, gen- der, ages and literacy in its annual reports. From a holistic overview of that data, the following conclusions have been made: • The majority of the unaccompanied minors admitted at CACR are of African origin fromcountries includingmainly Guinea-Conakry, the Republic of Congo and Guin- ea-Bissau. Asian is the secondmost encountered originwith children comingmain- ly fromAfghanistan. • Male unaccompanied minors are significantly a lot more than females; as of 2018, that ratio was 80% and 20% accordingly. Furthermore, the lack of statistical data on the level of literacy of unaccompaniedmi- nors does not allow a clear picture of that matter. However, based on information by the CPR’s report in 2017 28 , there was a wide range from illiterate to elementary and secondary education. In that year, it should be noted that there was a young man who was granted a scholarship and commenced his studies at university. The CPR’s 2018 29 report states that upon arrival in Portugal, 16.92%of the unaccompanied chil- dren had never attended school, 41.54% had to leave school early (21.54% was be- tween 1st and 4th grade and 20% had completed 5th or 6th grade), 20% was be- tween 7th and 9th grade, 20% had attended secondary education and 1.54% higher education. Another interesting factor that is worth including in this section is the rate of ab- scondment of the unaccompanied minors from the CACR with the highest percent- 27. AIDA. (2018). Asylum Information Database . AIDA. (2019). Asylum Information Database . 28. CPR. (2017). Relatório de Atividades . 29. CPR. (2018). Relatório de Atividades .