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Description
Most of the refugees and migrants arriving in Bulgaria are unaccompanied children. They are exposed to many risks on their way. Many of them have experienced violence, sexual exploitation, rape, trafficking, forced marriage and/or strong emotional or psychological pressure during their journey. According to the Bulgarian legislation, a minor or a minor foreigner who is on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria and is not together with his/her parent (s) or another adult who is responsible for him/her by law or custom is "unaccompanied". Upon identification of an unaccompanied minor on the territory of the country, a police authority shall hand over the child to an employee of the Child Protection Department for taking a measure for placement outside the family under the Child Protection Act. At the same time, the initial identification and referral of unaccompanied children to social services within the national child protection system is hindered due to the language barrier and the lack of financial and administrative capacity of service providers. Therefore, there is a risk that measures will be taken against the child without taking into account his/her interests, their impact on his/her well-being, as well as the forced placement of the child in the SCTAF due to incorrect identification. The difficulties identified above apply to finally rejected unaccompanied children, those who have not applied for or received international protection. This draft proposal aims to create a specialized social service for refugee and migrant children. This will be achieved through a new project, which includes various institutions directly related to migrants and refugees in Bulgaria. The project and its specific objectives include: - Repair and furnishing of a building, municipal property, for short-term and long-term accommodation of refugee and migrant children; - Providing specialized social services to refugee and migrant children.
Summary of project results
This draft proposal aimед to create a specialized social service provided to refugee and migrant children as that was a new demonstration project in Bulgaria, which included various institutions directly related to migrants and refugees in Bulgaria - State Agency for Refugees at the Council of Ministers, Oborishte Municipality, Bulgarian Red Cross. The demonstration project was be implemented on the territory of Sofia Municipality - Oborishte District and its specific objectives included:
- repair and furnishing of a building, municipal property, for short-term and long-term accommodation of 10 refugee and migrant children ;
- hiring specialized personnen and provision of specialized social services to refugee and migrant children - social, health, educational and legal ones.
Within the framework of the project the first specialized Residential social care service for unaccompanied children ( “the Centre”) was established in Bulgaria. The main aim of the of the project was to provide a safe and secure environment for refugee and migrant children as alternative to the refugee reception facilities. This pilot proivded grounds for establishing a mechanism to accommodate refugee children in alternative care and promoted residential social services care for refugee children among many stakeholders.
In the Centre 24-hour social worker duty, security and catering (breakfast, lunch and dinner) were provided for the accommodated children. This 10-bed facility, fully furnished and technically equipped, operated for seven months, assisting 13 unaccompanied children from Syria, Iran and Afghanistan. In addition to basic needs, it provided the so-called "Accommodation" package, as each package included 2 pieces of underwear, t-shirts and socks, 1 piece of sweatpant and sweatshirt, sneakers and slippers, as well as hygiene materials - face and body towel, toothbrush and toothpaste, soap, shampoo, shaving foam, razor and sanitary napkins.
In order to provide a quality social service, a qualified team was hired, a manager and 5 social workers, speaking the language of the target group, who underwent a 5-day training with experts in the field.
A range of social, health, educational, legal and psychological measures were provided in the centre. For this purpose, contracts were concluded with experts providing legal and psychosocial counselling. А contract was also concluded with a translation agency to translate documents of the children that could be used for enrolment in a Bulgarian school, family reunification procedure, etc. Those additional services provided grounds for hollistic approach to significantly descrease the vulnerability of refugee children and to promote their well-being.
In addition to psychosocial counselling for the children from the target group, 60 group and individual supervision sessions were provided for the project team. In total 78 individual psychosocial (234 hours) and 12 legal consultations were provided to the target group.
Under the project were contracted four translators from and into Arabic, English, Farsi and Pashto to assist the experts.
After the conclusion of the project, 30 April 2024, the Agreement between the Bulgarian Red Cross and Sofia Municipality - Oborishte District was concluded, under which the BRC continued to provide a social service, as well as catering and security for those accommodated in the centre children for an additional period of three months. This transition period allowed for the center become a state-delegated social service. The Sofia City council adopted a descision by virtue of which the center became part of the Sofia municipality social services and will be funded by the municipal budget, which testifies for the sustanbility of this project. Up to date, the Residential social services centre continues to operate, with 11 children from Syria and 1 from Iran accommodated there.