site.bta24/7 Support Project for Unaccompanied Refugee Children Presented at Council of Ministers

A project offering alternative social services for refugee children worth over BGN 26 million was presented Tuesday at the Council of Ministers by Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov, the Chair of the State Agency for Refugees, Ivan Ivanov, Deputy Interior Minister Todor Popov, and Yordanka Chobanova, Head of the European Commission's Representation in Bulgaria.

The beneficiary of the project Creating alternative social services for unaccompanied refugee children in Bulgaria is the State Agency for Refugees with the Council of Ministers, in partnership with the Mission of the International Organization for Migration in Bulgaria, UNICEF - Bulgaria, and the municipalities of Burgas, Ivaylovgrad, Tundzha, and Malko Tarnovo. The project is worth BGN 26,132,610, of which BGN 23,519,349 constituting up to 90% of the total eligible project costs, funded through the EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, and BGN 2,613,261 constituting up to 10% of the total eligible project costs, co-financed by the State budget. 

The aim of the project is to improve the reception infrastructure and care for unaccompanied refugee children through sustainable alternative solutions outside institutions, for better integration, social inclusion and quality care.

The main activities of the project include counselling and support for referring unaccompanied children to social services; construction, renovation, equipping, and furnishing of residential-type accommodation centres and transitional housing in the municipalities of Burgas, Malko Tarnovo, Ivaylovgrad, and Tundzha; creation and operation of alternative social care services for unaccompanied children.

Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov said that Bulgaria is responding adequately to the challenge of building a sustainable model for caring for refugee children. "Europe has placed a very serious emphasis in recent years on the protection and asylum of unaccompanied refugee children, and this is no coincidence, because the statistics are indeed very alarming," Zafirov added. According to him, Bulgaria is one of seven EU Member States to have defended with dignity the need to establish this type of social support for refugee children, which should be both a source of pride and a source of great responsibility.

Ivan Ivanov, Chair of the State Agency for Refugees with the Council of Ministers said that Bulgaria ranks fourth in number of unaccompanied refugee children in the European Union. Ivanov underlined that all this makes it extremely necessary to create a sustainable mechanism for the protection, support, and social inclusion of these children. “The goal is not simply to accommodate them in these centers, but to build a model of care based on a comprehensive approach to the child, focusing on their individual needs and opportunities for social inclusion in our country,” Ivanov said.

The Head of the European Commission's Representation in Bulgaria, Yordanka Chobanova, praised the initiative as a pioneering step combining innovation with compassion. She emphasized Bulgaria's potential to become a model for effective refugee care across Europe. Chobanova noted that the initiative aligns with the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, which takes effect in mid-2026 and aims to ensure fair, sustainable migration management while protecting fundamental rights, especially for unaccompanied minors.

Deputy Interior Minister Todor Popov explained that the initiative will be funded through the EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, which in Bulgaria is administered by the International Projects Directorate at the Interior Ministry. He stated that the ministry, through its agencies, has clear responsibilities in providing initial care and referral of unaccompanied foreign children to protection services. “The issue of unaccompanied foreign children within the international protection system is of particular importance, both in terms of national asylum and migration policy and in the context of Bulgaria's European and international obligations,” Popov emphasized.