On Monday, 22 May 2017 at the Envoy Conference Centre in Belgrade, the Belgrade Center for Human Rights held a working meeting to mark the end of the project Making a Difference for Refugee Children in Europe, which has been implemented since July 2016, with the support of the International Rescue Committee, with financial resources of the Department for International Development of the British Government (DFID/UK Aid). Purpose of the working meeting was to present recommendations reached by over 100 representatives of relevant state institutions and civil society organizations, participants of previous working meetings (in Belgrade, Subotica, Sabac and twice in Nis), as well as to define the final recommendations for the improvement the practice of providing protection for unaccompanied and separated children migrants in the following areas: first contact with unaccompanied children and standards of conduct, the victim – identification and treatment, alternative care, inter-agency cooperation.
At the meeting, participants were addressed by Vesna Petrovic, PhD, Executive Director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, Gordana Ivkovic-Grujic, Country Director for Serbia at the International Rescue Committee, Ljubimka Mitrovic, Protection Assistant at the UNHCR Office in Belgrade, Ivana Anic-Curko, representative of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, Nevena Vuckovic Sahovic, PhD, a member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2003-2009), and Sonja Toskovic, Senior Legal Officer at the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights. In working groups, led by Sonja Toskovic, Dragan Vulevic from the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, Jelena Hrnjak from the Association “Atina” and Nevena Vuckovic Sahovic, participants had the opportunity to consider the recommendations reached by the participants of previous working meetings, as well as to formulate final recommendations for the improvement of the situation of unaccompanied and separated migrant children in Serbia. In addition, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights presented a draft version of the final document of Unaccompanied and separated migrant children in Serbia, which will involve the final recommendations from the working meeting.
