Vulnerable children and their right to be heard

1. Vulnerable children and their right to be heard Ann-ChristinCederborg Professor and Head of the department: Child and Youth Studies, Stockholm university

2. Vulnerable children • Children exposed to: • Sexual and physical abuse • Sex trade (trafficking) • Bullying • Children seeking asylum • Neglected children • Children with psychological problems • Children committing serious crimes Ann-Christin Cederborg

3. Girl’s exposed to sex trade Serious social problem Difficulties with prosecution of traffickers One reason victims’ reluctance to cooperate with authorities Ann-Christin Cederborg

4. Children exposed to sex trade Lindholm, J., Cederborg A-C. & Alm, C. (2014). Adolescent Girls Exploited in the Sex Trade: Informativeness and Evasiveness in Investigative Interviews. Police Practice and Research: An International Journal (in press) Ann-Christin Cederborg

5. Aim We do not enough about how to interview exploited children: This study investigates how girls respond to questions about the sex trade with respect to the quality of questions asked Ann-Christin Cederborg

6. Quality of question types Open questions: Invitations prompt children to freely recall information. ”Tell me what happened” Directive questions openly focus on details already mentioned ”When did you leave Sweden” Ann-Christin Cederborg

7. Question types Focused questions Leading questions focus on details or aspects not previously mentioned, asking to affirm, negate or select given options: ”Do you know anyone here in Sweden” Suggestive questions assume details that have not been disclosed by the child strongly communicating what response is expected: ” What did you tell your parents before you went to Sweden” Ann-Christin Cederborg

8. Quality of responses Disclosures: Request conforming, Agreements, Disagreements, Extended task related Non-disclosures: No answer, evasive responses Ann-Christin Cederborg

9. ResultQuantitative analyses Disclosures five times more frequent than non-disclosures. Request-conforming most common More than 50% of the question asked were not recommended leading and suggestive questions. Ann-Christin Cederborg

10. Reason Victims may fear reprisals Are under the trafficker’s control Loyalty towards their trafficker Disloyal with Law Enforcement Do not believe the trafficker will be prosecuted Ann-Christin Cederborg

11. Results Disclosures involved a large number of yes and no responses implying that few details of legal importance were elicited Ann-Christin Cederborg

12. Victims Victims exposed to severe abuse or are in the traffickers’ control are the least likely to disclose information Have feelings of guilt and shame Fear of reprimands Feelings of co-responsibility Ann-Christin Cederborg

13. Evasive responses The girls avoid disclosing information about crime specific details: • involvement in the sex trade • their relations to persons involved in the crime Ann-Christin Cederborg

14. Case specific details Not motivated to disclose: Time laps between the period of exploitation and the conducting of the police interviews Exposure of high level of violence, abuse and force Interviews together with the perpetrator Ann-Christin Cederborg

15. Novel insights Further the knowledge about each girl’s personal style to disclose information Police officers can facilitate disclosure by avoiding criticism, confrontations and leading questions. They should also avoid suggestive prompts Ann-Christin Cederborg

16. Asylum seeking minors in interpreter-mediated interviews Objectives Explore the extent to which the minors-informativeness was effected by the quality of the information seeking prompts Examine how accurately the interpreter managed to transmit substantial information provided by the minors Ann-Christin Cederborg

17. A quantitative analysis Of: the translated questions asked by the officials the minors’ responses to them the accuracy with which the minors’ responses were rendered Ann-Christin Cederborg

18. Question types Open questions: Invitations Directive questions Focused questions: Leading questions Suggestive utterances Ann-Christin Cederborg

19. Minors’ responses Disclosure request conforming extended task-related disagreements and agreements Non-disclosure evasive absence of responses Ann-Christin Cederborg

20. Translations of the minors’ responses close approximation of what the child said summary expanded divergent non-rendition silence Ann-Christin Cederborg

21. Result Provision of 3 547 responses: 3 285 were disclosures 262 non-disclosures Ann-Christin Cederborg

22. Result Type of disclosures varied depending on type of question asked: Open questions (invitations and directives) elicited higher level of request conforming responses compared to focused questions Focused questions (leading and suggestive) elicited more of agreements, disagreements and extended responses Ann-Christin Cederborg

23. Renditions Accurate renditions 76% Inaccurate renditions 16% Non renditions 8% Ann-Christin Cederborg

24. Minors withhold specific facts Especially when asked to: reveal information about ID papers location of the smuggler orphanage home parents’ identities and whereabouts time of events that could provide information for child’s age estimation smugglers’ and helpers’ identity Ann-Christin Cederborg

25. Active participants Seldom gave no answers Elaborated on their answers Tried to provide alternative accounts when disagreeing with options given Elaborated on their responses when they agreed with the options provided Ann-Christin Cederborg

26. Interpreter All inaccurate renditions were sources of concern: Each could negatively affect the quality of information provided to the Migration authorities For example when they improved on or ignored the style and semantic choices made by the minors Ann-Christin Cederborg

27. Interpreter-mediated asylum hearings in Sweden Keselman, O., Cederborg, A-C., Lamb, M.E., & Dahlström, Ö. (2008). Mediated communication with minors in asylum- seeking hearings. Journal of Refugee Studies. 21,1,103-116. Keselman, O., Cederborg, A-C., Lamb, M.E., & Dahlström, Ö. (2010a). Asylum seeking minors in interpreter-mediated interviews: what do they say and what happens to their responses? Child & Family Social Work. 15, 325-334. Keselman, O., Cederborg, A-C., & Linell, P. (2010b) “That is not necessary for you to know!” Negotiation of participation status of unaccompanied children in interpreter-mediated asylum hearings. Interpreting. International Journal of Research and Practice in Interpreting. 12:1, 83-104. Kelselman, O. (2009). Restricting participation. Unaccompanied children in interpreter-mediated asylum hearings in Sweden. Dissertation Linköping University Ann-Christin Cederborg

28. Overall findings Interpreters can profoundly influence the fact finding aspects of asylum investigations Migration authorities have to increase their awareness of how the minors’ disclosures can be influenced by the questions asked Ann-Christin Cederborg

29. Conclusion Vulnerable children’s right to be heard is obvious but: Their motivation to report may vary Irrespectively, the interviews have to be performed in such a way that the minors are given best possible prerequisites to give their perspective. Ann-Christin Cederborg