Help for unaccompanied refugee minors

When an unaccompanied minor refugee enters Germany, all necessary measures must be taken to protect the welfare of the child on the basis of the Eighth Social Code (SGB VIII). Children and young people in this sense are minors who are third-country nationals, usually from war and crisis zones, who enter the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany without a legal guardian.

They are entitled to be taken into care as a temporary measure of child and youth welfare. The guiding principle of this law is that every young person in Germany has the right to support their development and to be raised as an independent and socially responsible person.

The provisions of SGB VIII also implement Germany's obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to which children and young people have a right to be accommodated, cared for and looked after in accordance with their best interests, through national law.

These children and young people therefore have the same rights as Germans under SGB VIII. Child protection takes precedence over the provisions of the Residence and Asylum Procedure Act.