Last month after almost 4 years apart three Cameroonian children, aged 10, 16 and 17, were reunited with their mother, Nina, who has been living in Hungary for 2 years now and was granted refugee status last year. She has a stable job and also receives regular assistance from a group of volunteers. In the past years, the kids lived with and were taken care of a friend of the family in Cameroon.

The procedure was long and not easy. They applied for family reunification in March 2017, when the three children had to travel to the nearest Hungarian Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria and submit their application since there is no Hungarian Embassy in Cameroon. IOM Budapest supported the process with arranging the travel of the kids from Cameroon to Nigeria and back, and organizing a DNA test to prove the family ties between the mother and her children, while Nina was represented in front of the Hungarian Authorities throughout the procedure by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. Finally, the request for family reunification was approved in the end of October 2017.

The travel from Cameroon to Hungary took place within the framework of IOM Budapest's family reunification project, which is co-financed by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund of the European Union and by the Hungarian Ministry of Interior. IOM also organized the family's flight bookings, tickets, and "fit-to-travel" medical examinations before the travel, as well as assistance with the airline to accompany the three children on the trip. IOM also provided airport assistance to the kids.

This has already been the 11th case where IOM Budapest actively contributed to the successful finalization of the family reunification. With 9 more family reunification cases underway, this current project is expected to run until July 2018. To find out more about the project please click here

***Names in the story are changed for protection reasons