Research in Brief: ERPUM and the Drive to Deport Unaccompanied Minors
Martin Lemberg-Pedersen, Dawn Chatty
This research brief traces the institutional dynamics surrounding the European Return Platform for Unaccompanied Minors (ERPUM), the first ever EU project attempting to organise the administrative deportation of unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers (UAMs). Besides Sweden, who coordinated the pilot project, its other core members were Norway, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Denmark and Belgium as observers. The project initially singled out children from Iraq and Afghanistan, and later, Morocco. The first phase of ERPUM (ERPUM I) was initiated in January 2011, and its second stage (ERPUM II) began in December 2012. The pilot was discontinued in June 2014, without having deported any children to the targeted countries.