The conference “Reception of Unaccompanied Minors in Families”, held on 22 and 23 January 2015 in Amsterdam, provided an opportunity to hear about the country-by-country reception arrangements for and an overview of the strategies on increasing family reception for unaccompanied minors. It aimed to increase knowledge of the issues and offer options for the development of solutions at a practical level and strategic level through the sharing of good practice from across the EU. The conference provided a forum for key stakeholders to connect and promote their good and promising practices.
There were 110 participants from 23 European countries present. This event formed part of the co-funded European Union RLF-project which Nidos (the Netherlands), Counter Human Trafficking Bureau (CHTB, UK) and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) were collaborating on from September 2014 to March 2015 to develop knowledge on the reception provisions within families for unaccompanied minors.
Programme
Go to Reports and publications (below) for downloads of the presentations.
22 January
- Introduction on the need for integrated national child protection systems and where the EU can and does play a role, presentation by Margaret Tuite
- RLF: project concept, presentation by Tin Verstegen
- Out of home care in Europe: an overview, presentation by Jorge Fernández del Valle
- Resettlement of unaccompanied asylum seeking young people in foster care: a UK perspective, presentation by Ravi KS Kohli and Jim Wade
- The care of unaccompanied minors in Ireland: from hostel accommodation to family care, presentation by Muireann Ni Raghallaigh
23 January
- Introduction to the findings of the project, presentation by Liedewij de Ruijter de Wildt
- Workshop 1: RLF in the Netherlands, introduction to the Dutch situation
- Workshop 2: RLF in Sweden, introduction to the the Swedish situation
- Workshop 3: Financing RLF, guided discussion on how to fund initiatives in the national and international arena
- Workshop 4: RLF, experiences of Dutch foster families with a cultural background in taking care of unaccompanied minors and working with Nidos
- Workshop 5: Recruitment of foster families, introduction to the Dutch experience with recruiting foster families with a cultural background
- Workshop 6: RLF in Venice, introduction to the the situation in Venice (Italy)
- Workshop 7: RLF in Oslo, introduction into Group Foster Homes in Oslo (Norway)
- Workshop 8: RLF in the Netherlands, introduction into research on experiences of unaccompanied minors with different forms of reception
- Conclusions and steps forward, Jan Murk