Guide: Minors
I am a minor (that means not older than 17 years)
Specific Rights for Minors with Family
You are not yet 18 years old and came to Germany with your family? Then, as a minor, you are entitled to appropriate support and care.
Your parents or your mother / father have probably submitted an asylum application for you as a family. If you have your own (child-specific) reasons for fleeing (for example: forced marriage, child trafficking, forced labour, sexual exploitation, domestic violence, child soldier, female genital mutilation), then this should be stated during the asylum interview.
Ask your parents—or if you prefer, a counselling centre—for help. This way, you can also be interviewed personally (with or without your parents) about your own reasons for fleeing.
Your Specific Rights
- Consideration of your child-specific reasons for fleeing during the asylum procedure
- Families with children may not be accommodated in initial reception centres for longer than 6 months
- Living together with your family in protected accommodation
- Protection from violence, mistreatment, and exploitation
- Support from child and youth welfare services
- Access to education
- And many more
Counselling Centres for Minors
Complaints Office:
https://ombud-lsa.de/kinder_und_jugendliche/
Youth Migration Services:
Young people with a migration background can find relevant information and guidance on the JMD portal, which brings together around 500 youth migration services from various providers across Germany. On the homepage of the JMD portal, you can also find the local youth migration service using the search function.
Project SENSA:
At the Refugee Council of Saxony-Anhalt, with a focus on unaccompanied minor refugees
The collected information was compiled and provided by the SENSA project. The project is funded by the European Union (AMIF), co-funded by the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the Free State of Thuringia, and UN Refugee Aid.
