{"id":15252,"date":"2025-01-20T22:47:31","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T21:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?p=15252"},"modified":"2025-01-20T22:47:31","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T21:47:31","slug":"lost-to-the-system-the-challenge-of-protecting-child-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/15252\/lost-to-the-system-the-challenge-of-protecting-child-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost to the System: The Challenge of Protecting Child Refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year thousands of children arrive in Austria, they seek refuge, opportunities, and a place to call home. <\/strong><\/em>This article looks into the journey of these young migrants and the challenges they face in a system that\u2019s supposed to protect them.<\/p>\n\n

The Numbers<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In 2023, over 59. 000 migrants arrived in\u00a0 Austria seeking asylum, of those,\u00a0 4.946 were registered as unaccompanied minors, children who have been orphaned or made the journey by themselves. One of the main reasons Vienna is popular among asylum seekers is because of its geographic location with migration paths merging from the east, and the south. The minister of the Interior of Austria recognized that this high number of immigrants was due to the closeness of the Balkan Route.<\/p>\n\n

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The journey to Austria is long and dangerous, arriving there does not mark the end of the journey but the start of a new one. A journey through a complicated and broken system, where people fall through the cracks. According to an investigation led by the renowned journalist group, Lost in Europe, over 20,077 underage migrants have disappeared from Austria between 2021 and 2023. These numbers are shocking but what is even more disturbing is that we don’t know where they are. What we do know, is that the migration system in Austria and Europe needs a change.<\/p>\n\n

Migration process <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When an unaccompanied minor arrives in Vienna, they must ask for asylum at the police station of\u00a0Traiskirchen. Then, from there the asylum procedure begins, and they are moved into a refugee center on the outskirts of Vienna. Afterward, they undergo an age assessment and have their case reviewed under the Dublin Regulation to determine whether they are eligible for permanent residence or provisional. In theory, this process should only take two weeks. Still, according to\u00a0 Lisa Wolfggard, who has been working with refugee orphans for almost 12 years, in practice, this process can take up to one year. Throughout this time these children are not allowed to leave the center, they have no guardians, no access to education, and are only provided with a legal counselor.<\/p>\n