On the recruitment of children by organised crime

B100277/2026

European Parliament resolution on the recruitment of children by organised crime

(2026/2725(RSP))

– having regard to the Treaty on European Union, in particular Articles 2, 3 and 6 thereof,

– having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in particular Articles 7, 47 and 49 thereof,

– having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,

– having regard to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 79/188 of 17 December 2024 on preventing and countering violence against children by organized criminal groups and terrorist groups in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice,

– having regard to United Nations Economic and Social Council Resolution 2024/12 of 23 July 2024 on the treatment of children associated with terrorist groups, including children who are recruited and exploited by those groups,

– having regard to the Commission communication of 1 April 2025 entitled ‘ProtectEU 2025-2030: a European Internal Security Strategy’ (COM(2025)0148),

– having regard to Europol’s EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (EU-SOCTA) 2025,

– having regard to Europol’s intelligence notification of 12 November 2024 entitled ‘The recruitment of young perpetrators for criminal networks’,

– having regard to the forthcoming EU action plan on the protection of children against crime,

– having regard to Sweden’s national strategy against organised crime, ‘Resistance and decisive action’, and to the crime-policy, migration-policy and public security measures made possible in Sweden through the Tidö Agreement,

– having regard to Rule 136(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas organised criminal groups deliberately recruit and exploit children because minors are easier to manipulate, cheaper to use, less likely to understand the structure of the criminal group’s network and, in many Member States, less likely to face sanctions proportionate to the harm caused;

B. whereas the use of children for murders, shootings, bombings, extortion, drug trafficking, robberies, money laundering, weapons offences and violence-as-a-service is not merely a social problem, but a direct assault on public order, victims, families, neighbourhoods and the rule of law;

C. whereas recruited children may be vulnerable and may themselves be exploited, but a minor who commits serious violent or organised-crime offences is also a perpetrator; whereas the rights of the child must be respected, but victims must not be rendered secondary to offender-centred explanations or impunity;

D. whereas criminal networks have learned to exploit lenient sanctions on young people, confidentiality and secrecy barriers between authorities and government agencies, fragmented child-protection and justice systems, family loyalty, clan-based structures, residence rights, welfare fraud and online platforms;

E. whereas the growing phenomenon of ‘baby gangs’ is evidence that organised crime groups are recruiting ever younger children;

F. whereas firearms, explosives, drugs and murder contracts move across borders; whereas organised criminal groups often use children as disposable operational tools while adult organisers, recruiters, handlers and paymasters remain insulated from prosecution;

G. whereas the Swedish policy shift that was made possible through the Tidö Agreement has demonstrated the need for a security-first and victim-first approach, including stronger penalties, better tools for law enforcement, better information sharing, special capacity for serious juvenile offenders, confiscation of criminal assets, return measures for foreign offenders and the destruction of the criminal economy;

H. whereas the first duty of the state is to protect law-abiding citizens; whereas families, households or clan-based networks must not be permitted to function as criminal infrastructure or to retain proceeds, advantages or expected benefits from offences committed by children;

I. whereas responses to child recruitment must distinguish between vulnerable children, who need early intervention, and children who commit serious offences, who must face immediate, secure and proportionate criminal-justice penalties;

J. whereas deportation, return, withdrawal of residence rights and withdrawal of nationality from dual nationals, including offenders who were minors at the time of the offence, should be available tools against people who recruit for, facilitate, finance, launder the proceeds of, conceal, benefit from, intentionally expect to benefit from or commit serious organised-crime offences; whereas, where existing EU, national or international rules prevent such consequences, the Commission and the Member States should propose legislative changes to make them available;

K. whereas the law should allow for the removal of a foreign child or dual-national child who commits serious organised-crime offences to the country of nationality or origin together with the parents, guardians or family unit where a court finds that the family environment facilitated, encouraged, protected, financed, concealed, benefited from, stood to benefit from or culpably failed to prevent the criminal conduct; whereas clan-based or family-based networks that function as criminal infrastructure should be removable as a whole, to the extent that everyone concerned is individually linked to the criminal benefit, facilitation or concealment, and subject to a judicial decision;

L. whereas the damage caused by child perpetrators may include death, physical injuries, psychological trauma, threats, destroyed homes and businesses, loss of income, loss of freedom, long-term fear and the degradation of public space;

1. Strongly condemns the recruitment, grooming, payment, coercion, transport and use of and instruction given to children by organised criminal groups and declares such conduct to be a grave attack on the child, victims of crime and society; calls for an all-out societal response to counter the phenomenon of child grooming and abuse;

2. Recognises that stable families and educational environments are the first line of prevention against the exploitation of children by organised crime groups; highlights the positive role of sports, extracurricular activities, parishes and religious communities in offering a local, healthy and community-based environment that can help prevent vulnerabilities;

3. Stresses the importance of addressing root causes of the vulnerabilities that make children susceptible to recruitment into organised crime, which are largely driven by mass and illegal migration;

4. Rejects any approach under which serious child-perpetrated gang crime is treated exclusively as victimhood; stresses that vulnerability may be relevant to sentencing and rehabilitation, but must never result in impunity for murder, attempted murder, bombings, firearms offences, rape, aggravated robbery, extortion, serious drug trafficking or other grave offences;

5. Calls on the Commission, in the forthcoming modernisation of EU rules on organised crime, to propose a specific aggravating circumstance for the recruitment, use or exploitation of minors and to ensure that adult organisers, recruiters, handlers, paymasters and criminal-service providers face penalties substantially higher than those for the underlying offence;

6. Calls for the EU institutions to support Member States in reviewing rules concerning the age of criminal responsibility, youth-sentencing discounts and diversion practices so that organised criminal networks cannot use children as shields against effective criminal justice;

7. Calls for secure juvenile detention, special youth-custodial capacity and, where appropriate, specialised juvenile prisons for minors who commit serious violent or organised-crime offences, with detention decisions being based on the gravity of the offence, public safety, risk of reoffending, intimidation of witnesses and continued gang contact;

8. Stresses that ordinary open-care placements, voluntary counselling, generic projects conducted by non-governmental organisations or symbolic support plans must not substitute prosecution, secure custody, restitution, confiscation, exclusion orders, monitoring or return measures in cases of serious organised crime;

9. Supports the Member States in imposing strict and enforceable measures on minors involved in serious organised crime, including electronic monitoring, curfews, communication bans, school-area bans, gang-contact bans, weapons-area bans and geographic exclusion zones, with immediate secure detention for serious breaches;

10. Calls for mandatory and immediate reporting by schools, social services, migration authorities, youth-care institutions and other public authorities of suspected gang recruitment, weapons possession, drug dealing, extortion, unexplained cash, threats or online grooming involving minors, while ensuring that rules on sharing information do not become a shield for criminal networks;

11. Supports the Member States in establishing joint police, prosecution, tax, customs, migration, prison and social-authority task forces focused on child recruitment, with lawful access to relevant data, rapid exchange of information and the power to map the adult network around the child perpetrator;

12. Demands a victim-first approach under which compensation is central to the sentence imposed and to any civil or criminal follow-up proceedings; stresses that victims should not be forced to bear the financial and psychological consequences of crimes committed by minors on behalf of organised networks;

13. Calls for compensation orders arising from serious violent or organised-crime offences to be enforceable into adulthood and, where possible, across borders until victims have been fully compensated, without arbitrary limitation periods, insolvency abuses or identity changes allowing offenders or networks benefiting from crime to escape payment; calls for the EU institutions to support Member States in making child perpetrators, parents or guardians, and any adult relatives, household members, companies, associations or clan-based networks jointly and severally liable where a court finds that they facilitated, encouraged, financed, laundered the benefits of, concealed, benefited from or intentionally expected to benefit from the child’s offence;

14. Calls for the EU institutions to support Member States in introducing or strengthening steep compensation and restitution orders covering death and bodily injury, psychological harm, destroyed property, loss of income, business damage, relocation costs, security costs, witness-protection costs and long-term trauma;

15. Demands the freezing and confiscation of criminal proceeds and unexplained assets linked to child recruitment or child-perpetrated organised crime, including cash, vehicles, phones, jewellery, luxury goods, weapons, homes, businesses, shell companies, welfare-fraud proceeds and assets held by proxies;

16. Calls for confiscated assets to be directed first to victims and, only after victims have been compensated, to law-enforcement, witness-protection and crime-prevention services;

17. Recalls that Member States may introduce legislative changes allowing for the withdrawal of residence rights, permanent residency, protection statuses and family-reunification rights, and the deportation of foreign offenders, including minors, who are convicted of serious violent or organised-crime offences, of recruiting or using children for organised crime, or of committing crimes for criminal networks, with removal to the country of nationality or origin following the sentence or secure custodial measure;

18. Recalls that Member States may enact legislation that enables them to withdraw citizenship from dual nationals, including people who were minors at the time of the offence, where they are convicted of murder, attempted murder, bombings, firearms offences, aggravated extortion, aggravated robbery, rape, serious drug trafficking, recruitment of children or other grave organised-crime offences, followed by removal to the country of their other nationality or origin and a long-term or permanent entry ban;

19. Calls for family-based return or repatriation orders where a minor foreign national or dual national has committed organised-crime offences and a court finds that the parents, guardians, household members or family unit facilitated, encouraged, protected, financed, concealed, benefited from, stood to benefit from or culpably failed to prevent the crime; stresses that such orders should permit the deportation of the offender together with the parents or family unit to the country of nationality or origin where this is necessary to break the criminal environment and prevent renewed gang involvement;

20. Calls on very large online platforms, search engines, hosting services and relevant messaging-service providers to cooperate swiftly with law-enforcement authorities, preserve evidence, remove illegal recruitment content and provide the data necessary to identify recruiters, handlers, paymasters and cross-border networks, in accordance with EU law and judicial safeguards;

21. Calls on Europol and Eurojust to establish permanent operational cooperation on the recruitment of children by organised crime, with particular focus on cross-border murder contracts, recruitment chains, money flows, weapons trafficking, explosives and criminal-service providers;

22. Calls for EU funding to prioritise police capacity, prosecutors, secure detention, prison intelligence, witness protection, victim compensation, border control, asset recovery, forensic capacity and information sharing, rather than soft projects that cannot demonstrate measurable reductions in recruitment, reoffending or victimisation;

23. Stresses that prevention is legitimate only when it prevents crime; calls for resources to be directed to interventions with measurable results, while insisting that serious offenders and the adult networks around them must face consequences such as criminal justice, confiscation, compensation and, where applicable, removal;

24. Insists that criminal networks using children must be dismantled at every level: child perpetrators must be stopped, adult organisers must be imprisoned, criminal assets must be confiscated, victims must be repaid and foreign offenders who abuse European hospitality must be removed in accordance with the law;

25. Is particularly worried about the endemic phenomenon of grooming, exploitation and trafficking of vulnerable young girls, who once trapped into prostitution by organised crime networks have a tougher time reclaiming their freedom and self-esteem; warns that the banalisation and legalisation of surrogacy could lead to new forms of exploitation and trafficking of young girls by organised crime networks as outlined in the Anti-Trafficking Directive ((EU) 2024/1712);

26. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Member States, Europol, Eurojust, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations.