The aim of the European Seminar on Unaccompanied Migrant Minors in Europe was to improve the care given to migrant children and teenagers. In the CON RED Project, we have always understood that the quality of social care and professional exercise is necessarily subject to a knowledge of the reality with which we are working. The aim of this project is in fact to produce and publish a number of documents that describe the phenomenon of unaccompanied migrant minors (MMNA) in seven European countries¹ and two countries of origin² in order, ultimately, to provide knowledge and benefit the lives of these children and young people.³

This seminar was designed as a closed seminar in which to provide professionals⁴ – previously selected – who work directly or indirectly with this group with elements of knowledge that they could apply in their daily practice. A total of 120 professionals from 9 European countries and two Maghreb countries⁵ met between 12 and 14 May 2004 in Barcelona to receive training about this group from recognised experts in the subjects being tackled.

The aims of the European Seminar on Unaccompanied Migrant Minors were:

	To analyse the complexity of the phenomenon from the point of view of the different countries of origin and reception and to provide the necessary elements for the knowledge of this;
	To define basic elements for good professional action for the various professionals who, from different perspectives, work with or act on these minors;
	To train European trainers so that they can teach courses on the phenomenon in their respective countries;
	To train European professionals who act directly or indirectly on this population;

Training was structured into 2 different modules that set out to embrace two distinct areas.

The aim of the first module was to develop a training programme that will provide the necessary elements for the general knowledge of the phenomenon in Europe, embracing the points of view of the various countries of origin. This module was aimed at professionals from any sphere who came into contact with the reality of these minors, such as professionals from the child protection service, from police services, from the judiciary, from the social services, from health care, etc. To this effect, the content comprised a first introductory, more theoretical module.

The second module was configured as complementary training to the first module and was intended to provide basic and more specific elements for good professional action. This second module was focused more on professionals who, from different perspectives, work with or act on these minors as social educators and/or street educators, social workers and other social action professionals. The content of this module sought to resolve situations of an educational nature and focused on resolving the day-to-day problems of the professionals.

This dual dimension was also reflected in the programme. The first module was developed on the first day and tackled subjects relating to the phenomenon of the immigration of unaccompanied minors such as the countries of origin, the number of minors, the countries of destination, the transport used, etc. On the second day, subjects relating to the socio-educational action were discussed, such as support networks, examples of educational projects, job integration and resilience. The third and last day was intended to be a look to the future and it dealt with subjects relating to the recommendations in the design of care policies, the transition to majority of age and, finally, a space was set aside for conclusions.

The organisation of the contents was structured in a number of formats. The more theoretical content was in the form of a conference or round tables. The more practical content, geared mainly to professionals working daily with the minors, was developed in the form of workshops with small numbers of participants to foster discussion and working together. All of the formats had a moderator, all of whom were partners in the Conred project, who introduced the various subjects.

One of the aspects that we would like to highlight is the role played by the people attending the seminar during all of the sessions. At all times, the people attending were conceived as active participants, and not only did they enrich the debates but they provided elements of knowledge and training.

One of the aspects that was discussed the most was the way in which we refer to these children and young people. During the course of the seminar, the speakers and participants made use of many terms: separated children, street minors, unaccompanied minors, undocumented foreign minors, refugee minors, etc. The CON RED project’s proposal for the term, as suggested in the title, is that of unaccompanied migrant minors⁶ . When we refer to this group under any of these names, we are referring to:

	Children and young people under the age of 18
	Who have undergone a migration process, alone or accompanied
	Who are outside their country of origin, separated from the people who legally or by custom are responsible for them
	Who have been able to gain access to the country of destination through a request for asylum or by illegal means

Finally, we would like to thank everyone who took part in the seminar for their participative and cooperative attitude. We are especially pleased that this event has contributed to creating and fostering networks between all of us who are, in one way or another, in the same boat.

We hope that these minutes can help to spread the true reality of this phenomenon.

__________
1 Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland.
2 Morocco and Algeria.
3 For more information about this project, visit www.peretarres.org/dapheconred.
4 The professionals were previously selected according to their profile and the duties they carried out with regard to UMMs.
5 Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the UK, Morocco and Algeria.
6 This term aims to highlight the fact that these children and young people have a specific migration project. To this effect, we have opted for the concept of migrants rather than immigrants as we conceive the fact of emigrating as a global phenomenon in which the relationship between the origin and the destination are continued and inter-dependent. Also, with the term migrants, we wanted to tackle the reality of all the minors in one single definition, both those who gain access to the region as asylum-seekers and those who are illegal immigrants.