First contact
Registration
Identification
Accommodation
First assistance
Age assessment
Family tracing
Relocation
Case assessment
Care planning Life project
Education and training
Work
Health care
Residence permit
Asylum procedure
Best interests determination
Identification of a durable solution
Implementation of a durable solution
Family reunification
Preventing Immigration detention
Turning 18: Leaving care
Aftercare
Ending guardianship
Turning 18: leaving care
When turning 18, unaccompanied
children lose much of the support that they have received thus far as a child,
for instance the support of a guardian, access to child protection services,
special accommodation and care. Providing meaningful support for the child’s transition
to adulthood and independent life is essential to ensure continuity in the
child’s life, to reduce the vulnerability of young adults leaving care and to
sustain the effectiveness of the services provided thus far.
From the moment an unaccompanied
child is taken into care, all measures taken for and with the child have to give
due consideration to supporting the child’s transition to adulthood and
independent life. It is the guardian’s task to ensure the care planning and the
personal life project of the child pay due attention to the support the child
needs before and after turning 18.
Safeguarding unaccompanied children
requires therefore a lot more than responding to their immediate needs upon
arrival and providing care up to the identification of a durable solution. It
requires a holistic and longer-term perspective in support of their
development.
The guardian should ensure that
state officials and service providers speak openly with the child about the
changes that will occur after the child turns 18. It is the guardian’s
responsibility to assess the type of support the child needs and identify relevant
professionals and support persons who could give or mobilise such support.
See
also:
Level 1: Child rights principles –
Development
Level 4: Age and evolving capacities of
the child
Reference:
EU training and learning platform for guardians of
unaccompanied children
Chapter 3: Session 3.2. From arrival to durable solution: promoting the best interests of the child in decisions and proceedings
Literature:
Council
of Europe (2007), Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)9 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on life projects for
unaccompanied migrant minors.
Council
of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (1996), Migrant Children: what rights at18?, Resolution 1996 (2014).
Drammeh,
L. (2010), Life projects for un accompaniedmigrant minors,
A handbook for front-line professionals,
Council of Europe, Migration Collection, Strasbourg.
Family and Childcare Centre
(KMOP), Defence for Children International –
Italy (2015), ‘Settlement’, in: Resiland
, Participation,
capacities and resilience of children on the move against trafficking and
exploitation, Orientations for professionals and officials working with and for
children on the move, Athens, p. 45.
FRA (European Agency for Fundamental Rights)
(2014), Guardianship for children deprived of parental care, A handbook to reinforce guardianship systems to
cater for the specific needs of child victims of trafficking, Luxembourg, Publications
Office of the European Union (Publications Office).
United Nations General Assembly (2010), Guidelines for the alternative care of children,
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on the report of the Third Committee
(A/64/434) 64/142, 24 February 2010.
United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe (2014), Unaccompanied and Separated Asylum-Seeking and Refugee Children Turning Eighteen, What tocelebrate?, Strasbourg.