This year, Caritas Europa had the pleasure to be entrusted with the co-organisation of one of the two side events that took place on the third day of the consultation. With a major focus on the 'Protection of unaccompanied children', the meeting aimed at sharing different experiences in preparing the resettlement of asylum seekers in countries of destination with the objective to maximise protection and identify possible protection gaps.

The gathering started with the intervention of Vincent Sebukyu Bamewenga from Caritas Uganda, who presented a case study on the situation of unaccompanied children in his country. Following this presentation participants got involved into a discussion on how the UNHCR Executive Committee's Guidelines on Children at Risk can be effectively used to address this type of situations.

Next speaker was Peter Verhaeghe, Migration officer of Caritas Europa. He delivered examples of existing practices in terms of reception systems for unaccompanied minors including the Belgian legal guardianship. This system is devised to support children seeking asylum and their foster families throughtout the whole process of the asylum request.

Caritas Europa seized also this opportunity to remind participants of the the European Commission's intention to present changes to the EU Directive on Reception Conditions and invited them to advocate at both national and European level for the inclusion of adequate protection safeguards in the amended directive.

The organisation has submitted back in April of this year a series of proposed amendments to the European Commission that Peter Verhaeghe describes as a 'constructive package' that can potentially lead to a higher degree of harmonisation and better addressing the specific needs of vulnerable groups such as children.

As every year, the UNHCR will issue a statement based on the outcomes of the Annual Consultation with NGOs by September 2008.