“There are no great discoveries
and there is no progress,
as long as there is an unhappy
child on earth.”
Albert Einstein
Approaches to
asylum seekers and refugee children and The Dutch system of care of unaccompanied minor refugeesMgr. Irena Konečná
In my contribution I would like to present my experience from my Erasmus stay in Holland, where I was mainly interested in The Dutch asylum policy, expecially about its educational issues.
First I find important to introduce you with some basic notions like
For comparison I would like to briefly talk also about the situation in The Czech Republic, which is confrontated with asylum issues for a relatively short time and delimitate differences between “emigrants” or “imigrants” country.
The main goal of my presentation will be to point out the system of care of minors , who are applying for asylum in Holland. This theme is largely discussed in Dutch society in this time, expecially approaches to unaccompanied minors.
Differences between the north and the south (from our point of view the west and the east) are quite marked , are connected with historical, political and at all economical issues and pertain to children, who have to overcome rather specific difficulties, are exposed to undesirable conditions which can be extremely distressing.
Child protection is always a sensitive issue, dealing with the rights of children. The Czech Republic stands in the begining, government and other institutions are now obliged to provide decent living conditions for children, which encourage their development. “This is seen as a duty and not as a moral gift of sympathy” (Unicef 2001).