Unaccompanied minors are a group of children and young people who have a particular need for special care and assistance, which they in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child also are entitled to.
Through our work in a research project where we study resettlement municipalities’ care and education provisions for unaccompanied young refugees, we have become aware that it cannot be taken for granted that the Child Welfare Services are assigned responsibility for caring for this group of young people.
This is a fundamental dilemma that needs clarifying. In this article we discuss whether unaccompanied minors’ rights as children are well enough guaranteed.