COMMON ANALYSIS
Last update: January 2021
This profile refers to children who do not have a parent or other adult family member who can take care of them in Iraq.
The analysis below is based on the following EUAA COI reports: Targeting 2019, 3.8.7; KSEI 2019, 4.1.1, 10.6; Internal mobility 2019, 4.3. Country Guidance should not be referred to as source of COI.
Step 1: Do the reported acts amount to persecution?
The severity and/or repetitiveness of acts that children without a care-taker could be subjected to and whether they occur as an accumulation of various measures, should be considered. More specifically, children born out of sexual violence by ISIL fighters have been abandoned by their mothers, often following tribal pressure. As reported in 2015, abandoned babies are ‘alienated and despised socially’. The Iraqi state had few resources for orphan children, and the country’s communities are too overwhelmed to handle their needs. Most of these children have been placed in the care of their extended families.
Being a child without a care-taker may also enhance the risk to be exposed to acts, which would amount to persecution, such as sexual exploitation, trafficking.
Step 2: What is the level of risk of persecution?
The individual assessment of whether there is a reasonable degree of likelihood for a child without a care-taker to face persecution should take into account risk-impacting circumstances, such as:
- Existence of identification documents: Possible lack of identification documents would enhance the risk for the applicant as they would be deprived of access to public services. The denial of documentation, which also leads to no access to basic education, may be linked to belonging to a minority (see 3.10. Religious and ethnic minorities) or perceived link to ISIL (see 3.1. Persons perceived to be affiliated with ISIL). See also 3.12.5. Children born under ISIL rule who lack civil documentation.
- Family situation: Abandoned babies have been perceived as disgraceful or the product of illicit sexual relations, and therefore stigmatised. Children of unknown parentage were not easily accepted in Iraq.
Step 3: Is there a ground for persecution?
Where well-founded fear of persecution is substantiated for a child under this profile, this may be for reasons of membership of a particular social group. For example, persecution of abandoned children or children of unknown parentage may be due to their common background (family situation) which cannot be changed and distinct identity in Iraq, in relation to stigmatisation by society.