Fatima is three years old. She was born in Guinea, and arrived in Malaga, Spain on the night of 23 June 2019, after crossing the Mediterranean with a large group of strangers and a woman who claimed to be her aunt. The authorities were unable to confirm the relationship at the time, so they referred the little girl to the child protection service. That is how Fatima came to know María and Manuel.
According to UNICEF, over 8,200 children entered Europe through the borders of Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, or Spain between January and June 2019. Until the authorities locate their parents or closest relatives, these unaccompanied minors remain under the guardianship of the state, which must guarantee all of their rights: accommodation, maintenance, education, health, and care.
- Some 34% of them (almost 2,800 children) were travelling alone or without their parents.
- More than 90 % (almost 7,400 children) are currently placed in reception centres in some countries, although it is not the most beneficial choice for the children, according to Jesús Palacios (professor of developmental psychology and a specialist in foster care).
Child protection options:
- Placing them in reception centres: It is much easier for the child protection system to rely on dedicated centres than look for families to give them help and support. ‘One of the things that happen when a child enters an institution is that he or she becomes invisible. They may well be looked after and have their needs covered, but children need a bond. They need someone who is concerned about them, someone who is caring, available and loving. That isn’t possible in residential care centres,’ says Palacios.
- Placing them with volunteer families for a longer time, especially younger children. There is no specific profile for a foster family; it can be a couple with children or without children, a single person, a person who works, or who is retired. The only key requirement is a complete understanding of the commitment being undertaken.
One example of a foster family is Maria and Manuel; they are a perfectly ordinary, middle-class family. They live in a normal flat with two bedrooms and have an average salary. Two years ago, they opted to become an ‘emergency’ foster family to provide urgent foster care for a maximum of six months (other arrangements include temporary care, for two years, and permanent care). They have since welcomed four children into their home, and now Fatima is the fifth. They have a 7-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter, therefore, ‘it is not a requirement that you have a big house and a big salary in order to be able to foster children,’ says Maria.
The challenges for foster families:
- Lengthy waiting process of assessing families. It is essential that foster families receive training, economic and emotional support, and that contact is kept with them throughout the whole foster care process.
- Different cultures between foster families and children.
- A case-by-case study has to be performed to see what is best for each individual child.
- Finding foster families for older children/adolescents, who in fact constitute the majority of unaccompanied children, is more complex. Three-quarters of the 20,000 unaccompanied minors who applied for asylum in Europe during 2018 were between 16 and 17 years old.
The initiatives that work on child protection:
- FORUM project:
- The basic principle of this project is to ensure the children’s best interests are defended and that they grow up in a safe environment.
- Since 2017, the European Union has been trying to promote family-based care through this project, a meeting point where experts and associations from eight countries (Austria, Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Spain, Hungary, and Slovenia) share their knowledge to help introduce this option in regions less familiar with it.
- Right now the Netherlands is leading the way as the only European country where there are more volunteer families than children. Its Nidos program has another distinctive feature, in that it tries to prioritize fostering by families with the same cultural or religious background. The idea is to allow ‘children to remain connected to their roots.’
- Izeba Project:
- Finding parents proves to be difficult — to look for aunts and uncles — but that is the basis of the Izeba Project in Gipuzkoa.
- The head of the project, Kristina Soares says, ‘The idea is to provide these children and teenagers with local connections and caring relationships, and even if it’s just a few hours, the effects are immediate. It makes it easier for them to integrate, to meet people from the neighbourhood and helps in their search for training and employment.’