Place Headline hereUnaccompanied Asylum Seeker

Children in Australia

Politics, Principles and Pragmatism

Lis de VriesNational Manager, Migration Support Programs

Australian Red Cross

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100 years of the Red Cross International Tracing Service

20 years of work with asylum seekers

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Government announced it would move a “significant number of families and the majority of unaccompanied minors out of detention and into the community by June 30 2011”.

Setting up out of home care options in partnership with agencies.

The Community Detention (Residence Determination) program.

POLITICS

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Who’s my Guardian? The 1946 Immigration Guardianship of

Children (IGOC) Act establishes unaccompanied children as wards or non-wards

How old am I? The matter of age determination

PRINCIPLES

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Who are the unaccompanied children?

The experience of life in out of home care

The difficult transition into adulthood

PRAGMATISM

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Food security is a problem for all asylum seekers “After paying the rent we have $35 left for two weeks…..we are eating noodles and eggs…normally one sometimes two meals a day. We realise this is not good for us….the body is not getting what it needs .”

Living in Limbo"Food is the last problem I have in Australia compared to other problems I face - mainly not knowing the fate of my status here in Australia. When I have bad news I don’t have much of an appetite.”

FOOD SECURITY

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By the end of 2014 Red Cross will be

supporting 96 children in out of home care

How we will respond next time?

THE FINAL CHAPTER