REUNIFICATION OF THE SEPARATED CHILD WITH HIS FAMILY

B.S. was accommodated in the Integration House “Pedro Arrupe” in early autumn of 2018. He was only 13 when found as unaccompanied child during registration of larger group of adult [...]

B.S. was accommodated in the Integration House “Pedro Arrupe” in early autumn of 2018. He was only 13 when found as unaccompanied child during registration of larger group of adult refugees. Social Welfare Centre was informed, and boy was then transferred into our Arrupe House with 24/7 care.

From the beginning he was enrolled in the elementary education and had assistance of JRS staff in homework and Serbian language learning. However, he was not motivated to actively participate. After six months he left Arrupe House to illegally cross border and find himself stranded in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He spent a few months in Bosnia and Hercegovina, and due to bad conditions in the camp he returned to Serbia. Fortunately, his former legal guardian (appointed by Social Welfare Centre of Belgrade to follow newly arrived unaccompanied minors) saw him in the Refugee Centre Krnjača (Belgrade) and immediately contacted JRS for boy’s return to the Arrupe House.

B. was again enrolled in Elementary School, started to follow English and Serbian language classes, art workshops, psycho-social workshops, and sports activities. This time he was more engaged in all learning and socializing activities, he liked going to school where he met new friends.

In meantime, his family managed to reach Sweden and got protection. His father started process of family reunification and his legal guardian was contacted by Swedish Embassy in Belgrade. After DNK analyses, Swedish Agency for Migration asked for passport to be issued. There were many obstacles in issuing passport because B. did not have any documents. UNHCR, JRS Serbia, and Social Welfare Centre Belgrade were together engaged in the process. Finally, his family managed to get all the papers needed, and passport was issued by Afghan Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria.

At the end of October 2021, after almost 4 full years, he received his residence permit and airplane ticket bought by Swedish Agency for Migration. On the 28th of October 2021, he was accompanied to the airport by his legal guardian and social workers of the JRS Serbia. After several hours, he let us know that he arrived in Sweden safely. Our B. was finally with his family, after not seeing them for many years. It is important that during his stay in Serbia he didn’t miss school years, and he grow up in smart and honest boy.