Acute shortage of accommodation for unaccompanied minors

Alert DateDecember 25, 2011 Country: Sweden Address: Stockholm General Type: Equality/Integration Racism and discrimination phenomena: Anti-migrant/xenophobia
Groups affected / Interested in: Refugees, Asylum seekers Key socio-economic/institutional areas: Housing Hate speech/Racist Discourse Medium: Other

Related Case Studies

Victims Data
Victims Nationality/Ethnic Origin N/A
Victims Gender N/A
Victims Age <17
Victims Number N/A
Fatalities - deaths N/A
Perpetrators Data
Perpetrators Nationality/Ethnic Origin N/A
Perpetrator Gender N/A
Perpetrator Age N/A
Perpetrators Number N/A
Extremist/Organised Group Violence No

Nearly 60% of the unaccompanied minors who sought asylum in Sweden are from Afghanistan, the majority being boys between 15 and 17 years. The acute shortage of accommodation for unaccompanied minors persists. In the middle of June 2011, there were about 340 unaccompanied children registered in the arrival municipalities.

The consequences of the shortage of accommodation for unaccompanied minors might force them to stay longer at transit accommodations, even after the Migration Board has processed the asylum application. Then the transit municipalities will be responsible for the reception of these unaccompanied minors, a responsibility beyond their duties. Further, the Migration Board has estimated that approximately a further 2,000 places accommodation for unaccompanied minors granted a residence permit will be needed in the next coming years.
 

Source: The Children’s Ombudsman, To improve local reception of unaccompanied asylum seeking children, Recommendations from ten local authorities and Children's Ombudsman in dialogue December 8, 2010 (Så här förbättrar kommunerna mottagandet av ensamkommande asylsökande barn, Rekommendationer från tio kommuner och Barnombudsmannen i en dialog den 8 december 2010), http://www.barnombudsmannen.se/Global/Publikationer/kommundialog%20ensamkommande%20barn.pdf (Assessed 2011-09-20).