On 13 September, IOM Slovenia and IOM Budapest co-organized a regional child protection conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The purpose of the conference was to enable mutual learning, exchange and harmonization of approaches and services for migrant children. It attracted over 50 national authorities and representatives from UN agencies, NGOs, embassies, academia and the media from Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Hungary, Italy, Serbia and Slovenia.

IOM, the UN Migration Agency, and its partners with European Union (EU) support are working to enhance the protection and safeguarding of asylum seeking, refugee and migrant children who find themselves on the Eastern and Central Mediterranean migration routes. This work was the focus of a regional conference, where representatives from participating countries also described the steps taken to improve the protection of children on the move in Europe, with emphasis on the challenge of identification, referral and assistance for unaccompanied migrant children and children victims of human trafficking and other forms of violence and exploitation.

The event was organized within the framework of an IOM regional project called Protecting Children in the Context of the Refugee and Migrant Crisis in Europe. The project is supported by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers.

To read more about the conference, please click here: https://www.iom.int/news/child-protection-eastern-and-central-mediterranean-migration-routes-focus-ljubljana-conference