Chapter II, Section 4, Article 16 · Regulation (EU) 2026/2280

Contents

Article 16Age assessment of minors#

1.Where, as a result of statements by the third-country national, available documentary evidence or other relevant indications, there are doubts as to whether or not he or she is a minor, the competent authority may undertake an age assessment in accordance with Union or national law. For the purpose of such an age assessment, the competent authority may have regard to the procedure set out in Article 25 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1348.

2.The competent authority may rely on an existing age assessment conducted in previous stages of the return procedure or in other relevant procedures.

3.A Member State may recognise the results of an age assessment of another Member State where that age assessment was carried out in compliance with Union law.

4.A refusal to undergo an age assessment, including the medical examination, shall not prevent the competent authority from continuing the return procedure. Such refusal may only be considered to be a rebuttable presumption that the third-country national is not a minor.

Defined terms · 11

Show every defined term

absconding
means the action by which a third-country national does not remain available to the competent administrative or judicial authorities;
country of return
means one of the following:
decision ordering removal
means an administrative or judicial act or decision stating or declaring that a third-country national can be removed to one or more countries of return;
entry ban
means an administrative or judicial act or decision prohibiting the entry into and stay on the territory of the Member States of a third-country national;
illegal stay
means the presence, on the territory of a Member State, of a third-country national who does not fulfil, or who no longer fulfils, the entry conditions for third-country nationals as set out in Article 6 of Regulation (EU) 2016/399, or the conditions for stay or residence in that Member State, or, in the case of a Member State not bound by that Regulation, the conditions for entry, stay or residence laid down in equivalent national law;
removal
means the enforcement of a return decision or a decision ordering removal by the competent authorities through physical transportation from the Member States to a country of return;
return
means the actions by which an illegally staying third-country national:
return decision
means an administrative or judicial act or decision, stating or declaring the stay of a third-country national to be illegal and stating or imposing an obligation for that third-country national to leave the territory of the Member States;
return operation
means an operation organised or coordinated by a competent authority or supported by Frontex by which third-country nationals are returned from one or more Member States.
third-country national
means any person who is not a citizen of the Union within the meaning of Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and who is not a person enjoying the right of free movement under Union law, as defined in Article 2, point (5), of Regulation (EU) 2016/399;
voluntary return
means the departure from the territory of the Member States on his or her own, with or without assistance, and without resorting to removal, of an illegally staying third-country national complying with the obligation to leave within or after the expiry of the departure period set out in the return decision;