The Asylum-seeking Child in Europe

The Conference The Asylum Seeking Child in Europe took place in Gothenburg September 24 - 25.76 people with different academic and professional background gathered in the not yet inaugurated Museum of World Culture. Presentations were held on topics ranging from International law and European refugee policy via presentations focusing on the child in the asylum process to traumatizing and protective factors and social end educational aspects. Lively discussions contributed to the success of the conference and a basis for future research collaboration was built not at least in the final panel discussion looking for future tasks in the field. In summary the conference managed to put attention on the perspective of the child in the asylum seeking process.
The Problem

In contemporary society children constitute an important part of asylum seekers within and to Europe either they arrive with their families or alone. Many of these children have own experiences of war, violence, acts of cruelty and similar traumas. Others have been exposed indirectly by that their parents have had traumatising experiences. The problems of the adults are often very large and children run the risk of having their problems concealed. Registration and statistics are generally not made in a way that make the exposed situation of children visible. The reasons for asylum of children in their own right are rarely investigated.


The rights of asylum seeking children are protected in international conventions and rules, like in the UN Convention on the Rights of Children, The European Convention on Human Rights and the Geneva Convention. The rules within these conventions have to be tested against the policies of asylum that are practiced in different countries. The degree of protection of children vary within and between different countries.
Within the framework of the discussions of the future of Europe within the EU issues connected to asylum rights are given a high priority. There are great differences between countries but the kinds of problems that have to be dealt with are similar. For this reason we find it important to highlight the perspective of the child in order to protect the rights of children.

Within the framework of Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence within Gothenburg University we are planning to have a conference with international and interdisciplinary perspectives on the ways in which the situation of refugee children are understood and managed both during and after application of asylum.

The purpose and goal of the conference

1. To exchange knowledge, research results and experiences on the specific situation of asylum seeking children in Europe
2. To explore the implication of international conventions for the asylum policy within EU.
3. To exchange knowledge between different scientific areas, for instance medicine, psychiatry, psychology, anthropology, sociology and pedagogic.
4. To collect competence from different European countries in order to enlarge the issue across geographical and cultural boarders.
5. To prepare a continuation for how to work on these issues.