Assistance to unaccompanied minors
Unaccompanied minors and young people without a legal guardian are a specific and the most endangered group which we deal with. These are persons of 18 years or less (“children”), who find themselves in our country without a legal guardian or whose guardian is unable or unwilling to care for them. The reasons that minors leave their homeland vary from case to case. The most common reasons are insufficient protection from the state, family disintegration, or fear caused by war or poverty. It often takes several months or a year before the child is able to tell their entire story.
Initially children under 18 were placed in children's homes and those older than 18 in Refugee Centres of the Ministry of Interior CR in Kostelec nad Orlicí. This practice was unsuitable and unsystematic. In 2004 after great effort and on the basis of cooperation between the Ministry and non-profit organisations a special facility for the children of foreigners was established. Our organisation was actively involved in the advocacy for these changes. Unaccompanied minors are now placed in the Prague facility for the children of foreigners called the Blue School (Modrá škola). During their stay their psychiatric state is accessed, as are their abilities, and what education level they completed in their homeland. From the Blue School children are relocated to the facility Permon u Příbrami, where they attend school with extensive instruction in Czech and the opportunity to study various other subject areas. In many cases we act as their custodians in order to protect their rights and interests. We assist children who come of age and are still applicants for international protection in the asylum proceedings. Special care is given to unaccompanied applicants for international protection in the Velké Přílepy detention centre. During the course of our activities we cooperate above all with locally appropriate agencies for the social and legal protection of children as well as other institutions. We regularly arrange for meetings between all those interested in this subject.
Since 1999, AIM has been a member of the international alliance of non-governmental organizations working with unaccompanied minors, the Separated Children in Europe Programme (SCEP). The SCEP alliance issued a manual called “Statement of Good Practice,” which should serve as a summary of model behaviour and approaches to ensuring the legal protection of unaccompanied minors in Europe. It mainly follows the Children's Rights Convention, the UNHCR directives on approaches and procedures in matters connected with unaccompanied minors asking for asylum (UNHCR, February 1997) and the Statement of the European Council for Refugees and Exiles about the problems of child refugees (ECRE, November 1996). This is the third edition of the “Statement of Good Practice” by SCEP, which has been translated into Czech for the very first time. The manual is for those who deal with the issue in the Czech Republic such as; judges, social workers, legal aid workers, workers of the Ministry of Interior (who consider the applications), NGO workers, teachers and educators. This manual contains basic principles and procedures for every professional who works with such children.
