No Longer Alone | Nidos in Europe

The project’s overall goal was to contribute to the improvement of reception standards for unaccompanied children and for ensuring accommodation and reception are adequate to their needs.

The project in particular aimed to further develop good practices and raising awareness on existing good practices by studying in depth five reception models, practices or initiatives. Those were:
• dedicated facilities for trafficked children (Netherlands)
• dedicated reception centre with range of integrated services (Hungary)
• reception and durable solutions through apprenticeship (France)
• role of the guardians in ensuring appropriate reception (Scotland)
• youth empowerment in relation to reception conditions (Sweden)

The project also aimed to foster information exchange and dialogue between Member states’ authorities in charge of reception in order to spread the use of good practices and discuss synergies and possible transnational cooperation.

In order to attain these objectives, the project included the following activities: 5 case studies, 5 study visits, 2 youth participation workshops in Sweden and a roundtable for local and national actors in France.

The project was coordinated by ECRE, in cooperation with 8 partners: the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, France terre d’asile, the Scottish Refugee Council, Nidos in the Netherlands, Save the Children Sweden, the Groupement d’intérêt public ‘Justice Coopération International’ (GIP JCI), a mandated body from the French Ministry of Justice, the Scottish government and the Directorate for Juvenile Justice Protection of the French Ministry of Justice as Associate partner.

The beneficiaries of the project included representatives from all the Member states who attended the study visits (15 participants per visit) and those who will use the compendium in their work at national level on reception of UACs. The project also benefited to 30-40 UACs in Sweden who were able to express their views and contributed to their reception conditions in Sweden. Finally, the roundtable in France was attended by 100 participants, from local and national authorities and organisations working on reception of UACs in France.

The deliverables included a compendium of good practices and a tool on organising Meeting Places and on youth participation in the reception process.

Reports and publications

Protected reception of unaccompanied children in the Netherlands - Study visit - 11-12 january 2016