A/HRC/11/7 page 6 22. Migration potentially enhances the child’s opportunities and future choices.7 However, many forms of migration, like the treatment of children during the migration process, can also pose serious threats to the child’s rights. Evidence suggests, for example, that the potential benefits of migration may be eroded for both undocumented children and children with an irregular migration status,8 who are exposed to the denial of rights, such as arbitrary deprivation of liberty and limited or no access to health-care services and education. 23. Children who are unaccompanied9 or separated from their parents10 are particularly vulnerable to human rights violations and abuses at all stages of the migration process. Some special procedures have documented, for example, that unaccompanied children looking for asylum are often at risk of deportation without access to the protection measures to which they are entitled. They have also documented that unaccompanied children, especially the most vulnerable categories such as victims of sale of children or trafficking in persons, are often treated like adult irregular migrants (E/CN.4/1999/71). 24. The lack of distinction between adult and child migrants is therefore a major challenge that a number of States still have to overcome. National migration laws do not always include a child rights perspective and usually lack specific provisions on children. Additionally, most public policies on children do not yet include the specific needs and protection to be afforded to the child in the context of migration. The treatment of migrant children as adults may lead to harmful practices, for example, when irregular migration is criminalized (A/HRC/7/12), or when deportation and detention procedures do not comply with the protection that should be given to children in those circumstances. 25. The protection of the child during migration demands the consideration of issues related to irregular migration, since they may affect the child’s enjoyment of human rights. For example, the criminalization of irregular migration addressed by the Special Rapporteur in a previous 7 For an in-depth study of the positive impact of migration on human development, see Human Development on the Move, Human Development Report, United Nations Development Programme (forthcoming in September 2009). 8 Irregular migration remains as low as 10 to 15 per cent of the global international migration stock. See Towards a Fair Deal for Migrant Workers in the Global Economy, Report VI, International Labour Organization, 2004, para. 37. 9 Children referred to as “unaccompanied” are those separated from parents or other relatives, or as not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible for doing so. See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 6 on treatment of unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin (HRI/GEN/1/Rev.8), para 7. 10 Children referred as “separated” are those that may be accompanied by adult family members or caregivers. See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 6, para. 8.