Achievements

The Statement of Good Practice has been drawn up by SCEP in order to provide a straightforward account of the policies and practices required to implement  and protect the rights of separated children in Europe. Read more about the Statement of Good Practice.

Over the years, the Separated Children in Europe Programme has published several position papers on varying topics, the most recent one being the Position Paper on Age Assessment (2012). Read more about the position papers.    

The SCEP Newsletter is published twice a year (spring and autumn) and contains information on the activities of the SCEP network, developments in policy and legislation of the European Union and Council of Europe, and updates on the situation of separated children in the various European countries. Read more about the SCEP Newsletter.

A great strength of SCEP is the European network that consists of 33 NGO's from 28 different European countries working for and with separated children in the form of service delivery, counselling, monitoring and/or advocacy activities. The existence of such a network is crucial if the issues that affect separated children in Europe are to be addressed effectively at both national and European level. The network enables the exchange of information and experience on lobbying, provides a link with those giving direct support to individual children and assists in the gathering of information. Not least, SCEP aims to share good practices within the NGO Network by having biannual network meetings and an on-going exchange of information and experiences through for example biannual newsletters.

In the case of a 15-year-old Afghan boy (S.), who wanted to reunite with his family in the Netherlands but was held in a detention centre in Greece, the contact between the organizations in the SCEP Network proved to be of great value.
The mother and two siblings of S. had, after a procedure of many years, received a residence permit in the Netherlands. Because of this, it would be possible for Greece to send the boy to the Netherlands on the basis of article 6 of the Dublin II Regulation. The family did however not know where exactly in Greece the boy was or how to contact him.
The family and their lawyer asked the Dutch SCEP partner for help. They were able to forward the request to the partner in Greece, who found the lawyer who was assisting S. at the detention centre within a day. Procedures were started and three months later, S. was reunited with his family in the Netherlands after having been separated for years.

This case is only one of many that prove the great value of the SCEP Network not only for advocacy and research, but for making a difference in individual cases of separated children.

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