The project was undertaken by law students on the Globalisation, Migration and the Law masters module, part of the LLM in International Justice, in collaboration with the Immigrant Council of Ireland.

The report focusses principally on access to healthcare, access to education, the right to family unity, protection against expulsion, and the right to a nationality and birth registration.

Each chapter gives an overview of the legal framework at an international, European and domestic level, followed by a detailed discussion of the key academic and policy debates.

Clíodhna Murphy, lecturer and module co-ordinator, told Irish Legal News: “At the outset, the Immigrant Council of Ireland briefed the students on what they would like to see researched.

“The ICI identified a need for a report on the rights of migrant children in Ireland, with a focus on providing an annotated bibliography of the key academic and policy resources in the area. This will feed into the ICI’s wider research on the situation of migrant children in Ireland.”

She added: “As you are aware, this is a timely report in light of the volume of migration currently being seen in the wider European context. The plight of unaccompanied children in Calais has recently been highlighted by the ICI’s field visit there.

“This is a controversial topic in the UK, where there have been parliamentary and government discussions as to whether to accept significant numbers of refugee children who are already within Europe into the UK.”

The report is available for download here.