Estonia not a destination country
The main reason why minors and asylum seekers in general are treated better in Estonia is that there are just so few of them. Estonia sees fewer than 100 asylum seekers in an average year, while Eurostat puts the figure in thousands for Nordic countries and up to 100,000 in popular migration destinations like France or Germany.
Estonia is a transit country and most of the people who come here do not wish to stay. Raidla-Puhm said this is why people caught by border guards sometimes tend to lie. “They want to reach Finland or Sweden and pretend to be underage in hopes of being treated better,” she said, pointing to two unaccompanied minors at KPK this year who turned out to be adults. She emphasized that if there is any reason to believe the person might really be underage, they are taken to a substitute home instead.
When a person claims to be underage, a medical analysis is required, even when the person clearly looks older. Most of those who have undergone the checkup have turned out to be over 20, while a 37-year-old man has also tried to claim they were underage.
People who want to stay in Estonia are usually Russian-speakers from the territory of the former Soviet Union. “Because they have a community here, a familiar cultural environment,” Raidla-Puhm said.
People from more exotic places come to Estonia hoping not to find their community waiting for them. “They come here knowingly and say they know they do not have a community here which is why they’ve come,” she said but did not agree to give examples of countries. “I will not be divulging that information because these people have come here not to be found. They have all been given international protection,” she added.