La tutela del diritto all’unità familiare e i meccanismi di protezione dei minori migranti nel sistema europeo comune di asilo alla luce della proposta di rifusione del regolamento Dublino III alcune osservazioni sul possibile ruolo degli stati membri

The present paper is intended to examine the dimension of the right to respect of migrant children’s family life within the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). In particular, the contribution investigates to what extent the EU acts related to immigration policy provide tools and mechanisms aimed at facilitating the actual possibility of family reunification in relation to both refugee and asylum seekers minors, especially unaccompanied ones. The analysis, carried out taking mainly into consideration the Dublin III Regulation, in light of the Commission’s recast proposal of 2016 and the amendments presented by the European Parliament in 2017, shows that, even though major modifications are about to be introduced to the general immigration system, the position of migrant children will not change significantly. On the contrary, the situation of unaccompanied minors without relatives in other Member States will even get worse, disproving the new act the ECJ position in the case MA of 2013. Finally, the paper scrutinizes the coordination between the CEAS acts and the private international law tools, focusing on the Brussels IIa Regulation and showing how the rules to determine the competent State for the asylum application and the ones on jurisdiction for the adoption of children’s protection measures are not always coordinated. In fact, they can possibly lead to different Member States, creating, therefore, a legislative framework which is not conceived to fully protect the best interests of migrant children.