Unaccompanied minor foreigners
Every day, children and young people leave their homes without their parents. They flee war, hunger and abuse, forced marriages, natural disasters, human rights violations and a lack of prospects. Left to their own devices, they travel thousands of kilometers to foreign countries with unknown languages and cultures. These children and young people are known as "unaccompanied minor refugees" (UMF) or "unaccompanied minor aliens" (UMA). Most of these minors come from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
The law on improving the accommodation, care and support of foreign children and young people in 2015 has significantly changed the work with UMA/UMF. Within the legal and timeframe requirements, it is now clarified as part of the provisional placement whether the children and young people will remain in Bonn or be distributed to other cities. If the refugee children remain in Bonn, a clearing is carried out in a youth welfare facility to determine the personal needs of the children and young people. Following the clearing process, the specialist service takes care of needs-based accommodation, financing, residence, legal representation, medical care and school attendance for the UMA/UMF.
Cooperation partner
When children and young people come to Germany without parents, they need a legal representative (guardian) who is particularly committed to them, takes time for them and personally accompanies and represents them as a constant caregiver. As a rule, this is the official guardian.
In order to expand the existing structure of guardianship services to include volunteer guardians, the city of Bonn has been a cooperation partner of Do it! Transfer. The Diakonie Wuppertal project has set itself the goal of creating nationwide standards for a sustainable improvement in the reception and care of unaccompanied minor refugees/foreigners.
As a cooperation partner, the city of Bonn is responsible for local implementation, i.e. recruiting, training and supporting volunteer guardians for UMF/UMA. The project is co-financed by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, among others.
Since 2015, more than 30 people in Bonn have been qualified as volunteer guardians. There are currently over 200 unaccompanied refugee minors living in Bonn.
Non-resident minors
Minors are all children and young people from outside Bonn who are apprehended here or who report themselves to the police, public order office or youth welfare office.
This group of people has already been looked after by specialist services for 10 years, as the office is centrally located (near "Bonner Loch"). The GABI (Joint Contact Point Bonn City Center of the Police and the Public Order Office) works together with the specialist service.
The number of underage offenders registered in Bonn has steadily increased over the past few years. The specialist service's support includes clarification of responsibility, initial contact meetings, regulations within the framework of administrative assistance, in some cases referral to youth protection agencies and the organization of the entire repatriation process in conjunction with the youth welfare offices of origin. The legal basis is § 42 KJHG (taking into care).
Due to the aforementioned "Bonner Loch" hotspot, many drug-addicted minors and young adults are drawn to Bonn. In this context, there is also cooperation with child and adolescent psychiatry.