There are a variety of reasons behind the arrival of unaccompanied minors in the EU, ranging from them seeking asylum or protection to being victims of trafficking, looking for a better life or seeking their family members. Regardless of their nationality or immigration status, they are children and should be treated first and foremost as such. Their common rights to special protection and assistance respected under UN instruments, EU Law and EU policy should be respected.
According to the preamble of the CRC, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, a child should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding. Children who are temporarily or permanently deprived of their family environment are entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the state. Otherwise, alternative care should be ensured through foster care, kafala under Islamic law, adoption or placement in suitable institutions that care for children. When considering solutions, due regard shall be paid to the desirability of continuity in a child’s upbringing and to the child’s ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background.
There is a general consensus amongst stakeholders in the EU that foster care is better for most children. The fact that it is generally less costly than institutional reception presents an extra opportunity to reach commitment. At this moment, however, only a small proportion of unaccompanied and separated children in the EU live in family care. The majority are placed in institutional reception provisions.
Nonetheless, practices exist to make use of reception provisions within families. Until now, the knowledge of these practices and approaches in different countries has been incidental and fragmented. The RLF project is aimed at promoting reception and living in families (RLF) by increasing knowledge of it, connecting stakeholders in Europe, promoting good practices and offering strategies for expansion. This report contains examples of the good RLF practices found and what is needed to implement them further, according to experts the project team met along the way.
Stakeholders interviews were conducted in nine EU Member States and Norway, and desk research was done for the other EU countries and Switzerland. In two international expert workshops, in the UK and in Sweden respectively, practices were discussed, exchanged and evaluated. The first workshop shared good practices and talked about ways of spreading them. The second workshop went deeper into how to recruit families and how to provide training to them on taking care of unaccompanied minors. Last but not least, during an international conference on RLF in Amsterdam on 22 and 23 January 2015, findings and possible steps forward were shared with 115 stakeholders from 23 European countries (21 Member States plus Norway and Switzerland). All findings are described in this report.