According to the Child Protection Act, all
children under 12 years of age should be placed
in foster care to avoid institutionalisation.
Nevertheless, foster care placements are not
available in practice for young unaccompanied
children. All unaccompanied and separated
children are placed in the Károlyi István
Children’s Centre, where they are accommodat-
ed in a separate building and receive healthcare
within the facility. Access to education can be a
challenge despite legal entitlements, although
many children are enrolled in Hungarian
schools.
Based on recent statistics, in the first five
months of 2017 41% of asylum seekers were
children. After the new regulation providing
for the detention of unaccompanied and
separated children over the age of 14 in closed
transit zones came into force, an increase in the
arrivals of young unaccompanied children was
observed. It is estimated that about 90% of the
children leave the children’s centre shortly after
being placed there to continue their journey to
other European countries, often to join family
members there.
THE PRACTICE
Currently, most children at the Károlyi István
Children’s Centre stay for a very short time and
go missing from the facility shortly after their
placement. SOS Children’s Villages Hungary’s
Refugee Program mobile team visits the centre
three to four times per week and provides
services tailored to children’s needs. Since the
project began in 2016, the team has worked
with over 700 unaccompanied and separated
children, including approximately 50 children
belonging to the most vulnerable groups (young
children, girls and children with serious illness-
es or disabilities).
I came alone all the way from Afghanistan. I had to face
many dangerous situations. I think it is a brave thing to
arrive and live alone in a different country, far away from
my country and my family.
12-year-old unaccompanied child from Afghanistan
Although family-based care should be available
for unaccompanied and separated children be-
low the age of 12, it is not applied in practice. As
part of its broader interventions for refugee and
migrant children in the country, SOS Children’s
Villages Hungary started a pilot project in order
to provide adequate care to young and vulnera-
ble unaccompanied and separated children and
promote the use of foster care.
In this pilot project, SOS Children’s Villages
Hungary is identifying and recruiting a group of
foster parents for unaccompanied and separat-
ed children. Foster parents are recruited by SOS
Children’s Villages and trained officially as all
foster parents in the country. They also partic-
ipate in special trainings provided by SOS. The
profiles and qualifications of potential foster
parents and the types of training and support
that they receive are based on the specific cul-
tural and protection needs of unaccompanied
and separated children.
When foster parents start as family based care
providers they are registered with the External
Foster Care Network of SOS Children’s Villages
Kecskemét Programme.
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