Specialised Foster Care for Unaccompanied and Separated Children in Serbia: A case study

The case study Specialised Foster Care for Unaccompanied and Separated Children in Serbia provides an overview of the project that Save the Children realised in Serbia during the refugee crisis response (2016 – 2017). Working together with relevant institutions, they have developed a specialised foster care training package for professionals and foster families interested in providing care for unaccompanied and separated children (UASC). This guidance has been formulated to enable a smoother transition into foster care for UASC, and to help them overcome challenges of living with families of different cultures and languages. The model suggested in the case study can be replicated in other contexts to promote alternative care solutions for UASC.

Save the Children has been present in the Balkans since the beginning of the refugee crisis in 2015. In the Balkans, they conduct activities to ensure that local child protection systems provide quality child-centred services to UASC, as well as provide alternatives to detention or closed facilities for unaccompanied and separated children. In 2017, refugee responses in Serbia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Croatia were transformed into Balkans Migration and Displacement Centre, with the mandate to improve learning and knowledge-sharing about adequate responses to children in migration.