The Council of Europe launched today its first ever regional HELP online course on “Refugee and Migrant Children” in the Western Balkans, in co-operation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the EU´s European Asylum Support Office (EASO), hosted by the Council of Europe Office in Sarajevo.
As the movement of persons across the Mediterranean and into Europe continues, the precarious situation in which refugee and migrant children find themselves in, as well as the risk of human rights violations, persist. The Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on Migration and Refugees, Ambassador Drahoslav Štefánek, stressed that this HELP course “reflects the principle that in the context of migration, like everywhere else, children should be treated, first and foremost, as children”. Ambassador Štefánek recalled that “children on the move remain one of the most vulnerable groups in Europe today, which is reflected in the new Council of Europe Action Plan on Protecting Vulnerable Persons in the Context of Migration and Asylum in Europe (2021-2025), adopted on 5 May 2021”.
The HELP course on Refugee and Migrant Children targets legal professionals and child protection services from six beneficiaries in the region: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.
“Children particularly unaccompanied are exposed to additional protection risks in the mixed and onward movements across Europe including in the Western Balkans region. Today’s launching of the course and its eventual availability in the local languages will help contribute to enhancement of the capacities of the national child protection systems in the region in addressing protection risks faced by refugee and migrant children”, said Murad Ullah, Protection Officer, UNHCR Regional Bureau for Europe.
Beatriz Prieto Barriuso from the External Dimension Unit at EASO emphasized that “By implementing the EU-funded Project “on protection-sensitive migration management in the Western Balkans and Turkey”, EASO joins efforts to the Council of Europe in supporting the Western Balkans partners in promoting a protection space for asylum seekers and people in need of international protection, and more specifically, those more vulnerable such as children.
Welcoming addresses were made by Arben Murtezic, Director of the Centre for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kay Binder, Policy Officer of the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), European Commission, and Bojana Urumova, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Sarajevo. The course was presented by Eva Pastrana, Head of the HELP Unit, Council of Europe, and Stephanie Woldenberg, from the UNCHR Representation in Bosnia and Herzegovina outlined the current situation and challenges in Bosnia and Herzegovina related to access to asylum and durable solutions for asylum-seeking and refugee children.
The regional launch was organised within the scope of the regional action “HELP in the Western Balkans” which is a part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”, implemented by the Council of Europe, in co-operation with the Office of the Council of Europe Special Representative on Migration and Refugees.
The course is being translated and adapted into Albanian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Montenegrin and Serbian. Once the regional course is completed, all these language versions will be freely available for self-learning at the HELP e-learning platform.
Other related courses:
HELP/UNHCR online course on Asylum and Human Rights
HELP/UNHCR course on Alternatives to Immigration Detention
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence
See All Newsletters
