Characteristics of Psychosocial Support for Children and Youth in Forced Migration on the Balkan Route
Introduction
According to UNHCR data, by mid-2022 more than 100 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide,[1] and according to their predictions, this number will reach 117.2 million in 2023.[2]
The reasons for forced migration are many: war, persecution, conflicts, violence, human rights violations, deprivation, and economic insecurity. All these people left their countries of origin in search of a safe environment, economic security and a better future for themselves and their children.
Due to the closure of European borders, refugees and migrants coming from the countries of the Middle East, Asia and Africa are forced to continue their journey to Europe illegally.
What is particularly worrying is that as many as a third of these refugees and migrants are children. Thousands of those children travel unaccompanied or are separated from their families along the way.[3]
Unaccompanied children and young people who are registered on the Balkan route are mostly adolescent boys who, due to their desire and often a sense of duty to their families, are sent in search of a better future in one of the developed countries of Europe. The vulnerability of children in transit is increased with policies and practices of the European Union and national governments that try to deter refugees and migrants from entering European countries.
In transit, children and young people are thus exposed to physical, psychological, and sexual violence, child labor, exploitation, and discrimination. They also experience daily violence, humiliation and forced illegal return from the borders by the police. Given that they have to cross the border illegally, children are also exposed to violence by smugglers and intermediaries who enable them to cross the border.[4]
In order to survive, children normalize violence, and in many cases, they are deprived of normal psycho-physical development, education and childhood. All this worsens the mental health of children and young people and they need appropriate and continuous psychosocial support along the entire route.
The specificity of the transit context and available psychosocial services
The transit context has its specificities such as: unpredictability, changeability, and the lack of control. The provision of adequate psychosocial support and mental health services is often hampered by a lack of resources in countries on the Balkan route, as well as gaps in the existing infrastructure of their social and health systems. On the other hand, services financed by international organizations and civil society often lack continuity and sustainability.[5]
Most international organizations primarily direct their resources to the application of psychological first aid and basic psychosocial support aimed at stabilizing the user who is currently in crisis, while forms of deeper psychosocial support are rarely provided.
Some of the available psychosocial services are psychological first aid interventions, preventive programs, educational group sessions, self-help groups and support groups, social counseling, activities aimed at improving parenting skills and a mother-child corner.[6] Psychosocial services also include services related to recreational activities such as sports and relaxation techniques, as well as creative workshops where children and young people can express themselves and explore different forms of art.[7]
The availability of services depends on the population on the move, the languages they speak and the engagement of cultural mediators and translators. They can be provided by psychologists, social workers, and other humanitarian workers from the governmental and non-governmental sectors.
Mental health of refugees and migrants on the Balkan route
According to the results of Psychological Inovations Network (PIN)'s Research Report for 2022, 80% of refugees in Serbia are identified as psychologically vulnerable, out of which 48% are highly vulnerable.[8] The most common specific mental disorders in the transit context were depression, the symptoms of which were manifested in 26% of the respondents, followed by anxiety in 21% of the respondents, while 23% of the respondents had symptoms of post-traumatic stress. According to this report, refugees and migrants experience an average of 10 traumatic events on the move.
On the positive side, refugees and migrants manage to preserve and develop positive psychological capacities that protect a person from the consequences of traumatic events and difficult living conditions for mental health. These positive capacities are presented in the report mentioned above as a feeling of hope, which was identified in 50-69% of the respondents and post-traumatic growth in 25-51% of the respondents.[9]
Forms of psychosocial support on the Balkan route
One of the forms of informal psychosocial assistance proposed by PIN is the Well-Being Walk. Here the continuous presence of volunteers maintains a sense of trust among stranded refugees and migrants, and they can turn to them at any time for help, support, or information they need. In this way, the risk of a person not receiving the necessary help is reduced and the availability of services is increased.[10]
The program for the development of socio-emotional competences in children was created with the cooperation of the organization Save the Children for the North-Western Balkans and local partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The development of these competencies can help children in migration to develop resilience within themselves, as well as to provide support to others, develop social skills and make the right decisions in challenging situations on the road.[11]
A successful example of organized peer support can be found in a case study - Boys' Parliament project in reception centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina that was supported by Save the Children. This project provided an opportunity for unaccompanied boys to gain a sense of control, learn about democratic values, develop critical thinking, and represent the interests of children from their ethnic group at the reception center.[12]
Healing and Education Through Arts - HEART - is an adaptable program of Save the Children whose goal is to provide psychosocial support for children who are exposed to traumatic experiences and daily stress. This program enables children through various art forms to share their feelings and experiences with peers and trusted adults who will listen to them with empathy and concern. This leads to increased self-confidence, concentration, and motivation in children, as well as to the development of communication, emotion management and problem-solving skills.[13]
Concluding observations and recommendations
There is a wide range of services and forms of psychosocial support that exist for children and young refugees and migrants on the Balkan route.
What emerges as a problem is the connection and coordination of these services through different transit countries and the cooperation between support providers from the governmental and non-governmental sectors, both at the local and regional levels. There are successful forms of cooperation such as the Consortium on Refugees' and Migrants' Mental Health, as well as informal forms of cooperation in which actors share information about beneficiaries. Nevertheless, it is necessary to determine clear international standards of service provision and ways of exchanging information, knowledge, and experiences among the involved organizations.
Transit context has its specificities and it is important that psychosocial support models are flexible and adaptable. This can be achieved by continuous assessment of needs on the ground by experts and by involving refugees and migrants in the design and provision of services.
It is necessary to find a way so that the services provided by the non-governmental sector within the projects are permanent and sustainable, as long as there is a need for them. Many organizations, such as PIN, are trying to continue to provide the set of activities that proved to be the most effective even after the project is over.
It is also necessary to act at the political level and advocate that national governments stop implementing inhumane practices of forced return from borders, remove blockages in the use of health and social system services, as well as to optimize the operation of their asylum systems.
It is further necessary to enable adequate access to information for children and young people about available psychosocial support and services. This means that information should be available in all reception centers in different languages and that it should be adapted to children.
To better answer the lack of trained practitioners, there needs to be an additional investment of resources in training practitioners, but also in taking care of their mental health, as well as ensuring adequate support from supervisors.
* This blog was written as a result of an internship with Save the Children and within the project "Violence Against Children on the Balkans Migration Route - Solutions Through Advocacy and Research (STAR)" implemented with the support of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative and the Belgrade International Law Circle.
Anja Marković
[1] UNHCR, Global displacement hits another record, capping decade-long rising trend, available at: https://www.unhcr.org/news/news-releases/unhcr-global-displacement-hits-another-record-capping-decade-long-rising-trend, accessed on 17.04.2023.
[2] UNHCR, GLOBAL APPEAL 2023, available at: https://reporting.unhcr.org/globalappeal, accessed on: 17.04.2023.
[3] Save the Children and Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of the University of Sarajevo, Wherever we go, someone does us harm.
[4] Save the Children and Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of the University of Sarajevo, Wherever we go, someone does us harm.
[5] Maria Caterina Gargano, Dean Ajduković i Maša Vukčević Marković, Mental Health in the Transit Context: Evidence from 10 Countries, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
[6] Maša Vukčević Marković, Draga Šapić, Ante Župić, Review of MHPSS services for refugees in transit, Consortium on Refugees and Migrants Mental Health (CoReMH).
[7] Maša Vukčević Marković, Draga Šapić, Ante Župić, Review of MHPSS services for refugees in transit, Consortium on Refugees and Migrants Mental Health (CoReMH).
[8] Jana Dimoski, Maša Vukčević Marković, Mentalno zdravlje i dobrobit izbeglica i tražilaca azila u Srbiji, Psychosocial Innovation Network, Beograd 2022, available in Serbian at: https://psychosocialinnovation.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/PIN_2022_Mentalno-zdravlje-i-dobrobit-izbeglica-i-trazilaca-azila-u-Srbiji.pdf, accessed on: 13.04.2023.
[9] Jana Dimoski, Maša Vukčević Marković, Mentalno zdravlje i dobrobit izbeglica i tražilaca azila u Srbiji.
[10] Jovana Bjekić, Maša Vukčević Marković, Nataša Todorović, Milutin Vračević, Mentalno zdravlje izbeglica i migranata
[11] Nada Šarac, Program za razvoj socio-emocionalnih kompetencija dece, Save the Children za sjeverozapadni Balkan, Sarajevo, 2020, dostupno na: https://nwb.savethechildren.net/sites/nwb.savethechildren.net/files/library/Program%20za%20razvoj%20djece%20FINAL_WEB.pdf , datum pristupa: 10.04.2023.
[12] Tatjana Ristić, Case study Northwest Balkans Boys Parlament, Balkans Displacement and Migration Hub, dostupno na: https://nwb.savethechildren.net/sites/nwb.savethechildren.net/files/library/2021_Case%20study_NWB_Boys%20Parliament.pdf , datum pristupa: 09.04.2023.
[13] Šejla Bjelopoljak, Miroslava Marjanović, Smjernice za integraciju HEART metodologije u nastavne planove i programe, Save the Children, Sarajevo 2021.
