Save 136 refugee children along EU-Serbia borders

We assembled a APC mobile office team of lawyer, psychologist and social worker and interpreters, and took the APC camper - mobile office to the road, to help young refugees & migrants across South, Central and North Serbia, the last migration buffer zone on the more and more dangerous and violent EU-Serbia European borders. We were moving to remoted areas in Southern Serbia (Preševo, Vranje, Bujanovac, Dimitrovgrad, Pirot, etc.), Central Serbia (Loznica, Obrenovac, Banja Koviljaca, Sjenica, Tutin, Krnjaca, etc.) and Vojvodina North part of Serbia (Subotica Zadruga, Makova sedmica, Suncani breg, Horgoš, Sremska Mitrovica, Novi Sad, Kikinda, Sombor, Šikara, Kelebija, Principovac, Adasevci, Šid, etc.) from our four main offices in Presevo, Belgrade and Subotica, that served us as a starting points and bases for our field operations. Our field trips are usually lasting for whole day long, and APC mobile camper team has been working in the field during the whole day in order to serve as many refugee children and youth as possible while being present at one location per time.

Hundreds of refugee children/youth are still stuck across whole Serbia, the last migration buffer along EU borders. Additionally Serbia is facing with significant and sudden increase of new coming refugee children and unaccompanied minors coming since the end of July. The new coming children are reaching Serbia in faster manner then before, in approximately a week long period from Turkey, via Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo or Montenegro to Serbia.

Once refugee children and youth enter Serbia they lack proper information and face no legal/psycho protection, lacking shelter, food, hygiene, health and other care. Refugee children are feeling afraid and disoriented, becoming easy pray of criminals and smugglers or corrupted individuals and even corrupted camps’ representatives, who are offering them support and various services to complement inefficient state system of reception and support.

With our APC mobile camper office we are now moving swiftly and efficiently to any place we are aware of children in danger along remoted border areas, camps or urban areas. Up to now, with our APC mobile refugee office on wheels, we provided 120 refugee children/youth with valid legal and other information on system functioning, on asylum procedures, on risks of traffickers, smugglers, criminals, on ways of recognizing threats, as well as on manners of protection and on manners of reporting existing risks, providing them our contacts and contacts of other responsible institutions. Moreover, we are initiating guardian procedures and social protection procedures, while our holistic legal, psychological, social and humanitarian aid is available to minors they otherwise wouldn't have in forests, along the borders, in the large transit centers, remote areas, in suburbs of cities, abandoned buildings & makeshift shelters, etc. In that manner we protect & empower children, saving them from danger and securing them a safe space for counseling, information sharing, psychological and social support. They are recognizing our mobile APC camper team as their support and friends they can trust, they can rely on and seek for protection. Through relation of trust and by word of mouth, our APC camper lawyer, psychologist, social worker and interpreters are able to transmit information and be sure that children understood it and received it with trust.

Thanks to the project support, we provided legal counselling to 105 minor migrants across Serbia, of which 46 were unaccompanied minors. Our lawyers helped minors to learn about their rights, and secured them to get accommodation in asylum camps and appropriate institutional accommodation where they were provided access to food, clothes, humanitarian and basic health aid.

On course of the reporting period, we ensured more of 76 vulnerable refugee children/youth access to asylum and to asylum guaranteed rights, to avoid irregular stay in local communities/open areas across Serbia,
During our field visits, we talked with young refugees about their experiences, their long and dangerous road, their hopes and dreams and current problems they are facing in reception, asylum centers and in other areas in Serbia. Unaccompanied migrant children are among the most vulnerable group of migrants and they are in need of special care appropriate to their age, we are now able to provide with our APC mobile refugee office.

According to our estimates, there are around 500 unaccompanied minors in Serbia at the moment. Same unaccompanied minors are, if accommodated, often accommodated in reception centers together with adults, even though this is not a place for them. They could be exposed to different dangers, such as abuse, violence, robbing and smuggling in same camps. In order to minimize the consequences of these circumstances, our team provided psychological support to 110 unaccompanied children in camps, helping them to overcome traumas they experienced on the road and difficult living conditions and other challenges in the camps.

Moreover, we are reporting any signs of same danger for unaccompanied minors to police, and social services, in order to prevent any risk and to act in the fastest possible manner. Often that proves crucial for the wellbeing and safety of children, having in mind that camp managements, social and other system services are slow, inactive and usually without real information nor presence among refugee groups within camps.

Thanks to our donors, APC psychosocial team organized 4 creative and 14 integration workshops where more than 70 children had the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings and get the necessary emotional, psychological and empowering support and understanding, which is crucial for them in their early development phase and in process of inclusion/functioning in local community, in the school system. One of the very important aspects of the psychosocial stability of refugee minors is involvement in the local community, contact with the local community, especially peers. Inclusion in the education system has a key place in that process. Our holistic mobile APC camper team is helping in that regard and beside holistic legal and psychosocial field support to school enrollment, designed and implemented a workshop that is helping children to identify specific problems and challenges related to education and find ways to overcome them, but also to support and motivate children to continue their education in Serbia alone or with support of their parents or guardians. Same model was further improved and prepared for local school staff to improve their teaching and working skills in relation to refugee and migrant children and youth.

Links:

• APC/CZA Mobile Legal & Psycho-social Office reaches RefChildren