ABSTRACT
The chapter presents the process, content and results of an expert workshop aimed at creating a space for meeting and discussion of people involved in immediate handling of the situation with unaccompanied minors in the European transition areas (the Balkan route) and countries of final destination.
The topic of child refugees needs handling, holding and containing at different institutional, group and individual levels in our societies. Discussions are consecutively presented as the main focus shifts from: 1) mapping the legal ground and regulations; to 2) descriptions of high-risk situations and prevention of human trafficking; and 3) experiences of child refugees and avoiding re-traumatisation. Experts name the main challenges in their work and share good practices.
Estimation of the emergent and long-term needs of child refugees forms a common ground for understanding and combining efforts for establishing evidence-based interventions and an age-and-culture-sensitive approach to safeguard the development of children.
Recommendations guiding work with child refugees are organised around milestones of psycho-social development: 1) re-establishing the sense of a secure base, gaining trust and achieving cooperation through organisation, structuring of time and enhancement of a sense of agency; 2) integration of experiences in a containing environment and development of a meaningful personal story; and 3) achievement of psycho-social identity through restoring the continuity of the past and the present as the only possible way of facing the future.
