Third country national street children are part of the reality of the metropolitan areas of the European Union. As a finished project carried out by BIVS and European partner organisations has shown, among these street children are many unaccompanied minor migrants. So far, in the host countries there is a lack of both adequate political will and the legal and social strategies and concepts needed for the protection of third country national street children. The project aims at analysing the situation in four cities and at evaluating the possibility of an EU-wide distribution of approved measures and strategies.

 The research results obtained from the project on unaccompanied minors will form the basis for the city studies. The efficiency and the shortcomings of existing protection measures for street children will be compared and discussed. Research results and contact with various institutions will form the basis for analysing protective mechanisms for third country national street children in the EU member states and for identifying, advancing and exchanging approved practices. 

The existence of street children tends to be an urban phenomenon. As such, we aim to target particularly the governmental and non-governmental organisations, programs and initiatives working on an municipal level with third country national street children as they figure integrally into discussion. The focus will be on four EU-member-states (including one new member state). On the basis of field studies, the preparation of empirical data in the forum of a European conference, approved methods are to be exchanged, discussed and promoted. The results will be distributed Europe-wide. 

To date, neither a comprehensive description of the situation of third country national street children in the EU nor a well established co-operation and exchange on this issue exists. The project will contribute to improve the information base on the phenomenon and promote the exchange and cooperation of European organisations active in the field. 

The project is targeted at such organisations as social work agencies and children and youth protection institutions, organisations working for temporary migrants, as well as the responsible local authorities in the cities of Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid and Prague.

Descriptions of the situation of third country national street children in the individual cities will be collected. This includes the legal and political framework for child protection and migration legislation and available data. Moreover, relevant institutions responsible for the protection of this group of migrants will be identified and presented.

Based on expert interviews, the knowledge and experiences of these institutions in protecting street children from physical, economic and psychological violence and exploitation will be described and systematised.

Good practices in the individual countries will be presented and the efficiency and deficits of existing protection measures will be discussed. The project outcomes will be transferred to the involved institutions and representatives from each country will be invited to the final conference.

By exchanging experiences from the individual cities, an intra-European dialogue will be encouraged for the development of measures to improve protection of third country national street children in the EU countries.