World Refugee Day 2025: KIND's Continued Support and Solidarity in Uncertain Times

This World Refugee Day 2025 comes at yet a deeply challenging and dark time for displaced people around the world as borders grow fortified and drastic humanitarian aid cuts put millions at serious risk, including children. 

This year, like every year, KIND remains steadfast in its commitment to safeguarding the rights and dignity of unaccompanied and separated children, including those in Europe.   

In the European context, anti-migration narratives persist, and media show a concerning but real trend of reprisals against nonprofit organizations working to protect the rights of people on the move and the criminalization of solidarity efforts. Since 2019 and as new risks continue to emerge for unaccompanied and separated children, our work in Europe primarily focuses on providing these children with quality legal and psychosocial support, building the capacity of key stakeholders and advocating for child centred processes and policies.   

We are grateful to be able to do so with an array of dedicated partners across the globe which embodies KIND’s spirit of solidarity. Advancing protection for unaccompanied and separated children demands a multidisciplinary and interagency approach. It is essential that children’s voices and experiences are not just acknowledged but meaningfully centered in these spaces which are concerned with important aspects of their lives. This requires intentional, child-friendly, and trauma-informed processes which is an approach central to KIND and its partners’ advocacy and programming. 

“Now more than ever, we need to come together across disciplines, agencies, communities and countries to ensure that the voices of unaccompanied and separated refugee children are heard and that they have access to the protection and rights they are entitled to allowing them to integrate and thrive” said KIND’s Regional Director, Europe, Kirsty Thomson.  

Our Solidarity in Action: Key Moments of Progress 

Solidarity means working together to seek adequate solutions, and above all, KIND recognizes that true solidarity is action oriented. These principles equally guide and inform the initiatives we pursue across different regions. Whether through legal assistance, training practitioners, providing technical assistance, participating in global fora, or leading working groups: each effort is a step toward lasting, meaningful impact for unaccompanied and separated children.  

At the national level, KIND continues to develop a unique niche in providing specialized legal support for unaccompanied and separated children across several European countries. A prime example is Poland where we recently celebrated a significant legal victory that marks a turning point in securing additional procedural safeguards for asylum-seeking children. Poland had introduced a new safeguard for Polish children where a court can appoint a specialized and trained lawyer to represent the best interests of a child called a “Representative (Reprezentant)”. With our partners, we have been advocating for a broader application of this law. The inspiring and hard work of our team in Poland led to a landmark decision by a judge allowing our staff to act as a representative for two children seeking asylum in Poland, the first case of its kind in Poland and which is without doubt, a step toward child protection.  

At the global level, KIND recently stepped into a leadership position within the Global Family Reunification Network (FRUN). We are especially proud to have coordinated a recent technical briefing with key partners on the complex procedural landscape facing unaccompanied and separated asylum-seeking children in Europe. During this online discussion, KIND facilitated the exchange as experts gathered to address barriers to family reunification. From outlining the current Dublin III procedure for reuniting separated refugee families, to sharing good practices across both requesting and receiving Member States, this exchange aimed to raise awareness of the right to family reunification, and share practical lessons and recommendations. We also appreciated the opportunity to join  the Inter-Governmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees (IGC)’s Network on Children and Youth meeting in Oslo in June 2025 as it reinforces KIND’s global cooperation to uphold and center unaccompanied and separated children’s rights amid displacement and asylum challenges.  

At the regional level, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles’ 2025 annual conference was a key moment for KIND to meet partners and allies to exchange strategies and experiences on how to remain effective, motivated, and resilient in the face of new and continuing challenges in advocating for the rights and well-being of vulnerable groups of migrants, including refugees and  unaccompanied children. Panelists discussed Europe’s response to displacement from Ukraine in the three years since the full-scale invasion to assess good practices and identify where improvements are needed. During these exchanges KIND shared its expertise on protection for unaccompanied and separated children. 

KIND is also looking forward to participating in a key seminar organized by the Council of Europe focused on reviewing and reinforcing the implementation of the recommendation on supporting young refugees in transition to adulthood. Informed by collaboration among migrant and refugee-led organizations, youth policy actors, and human rights stakeholders, this seminar aims to raise awareness of the challenges faced by young people and practitioners and reinforce cooperation amongst key stakeholders supporting young people transitioning to adulthood. It is also a space to explore concrete actions and long-term measures to better support their rights as they move toward adulthood over the next five years (2025–2030), and to learn more about young people’s experiences and the challenges they encounter. This conversation aligns closely with the goals of the project “My Coming of Age Story (CO.A.ST),” in which KIND is a partner, which is dedicated to supporting unaccompanied children and their guardians as they navigate this delicate and formative stage of life, through the creation and provision of practical tools and resources. Much like the seminar by the Council of Europe, this project is informed by the lived experience of young people.    The key national, regional and global highlighted above are a testament to the dedication and expertise of KIND teams and partners and the importance of local advocacy with global impact. The road ahead may be uncertain, but our commitment to protecting unaccompanied and separated children and upholding their voices, whether in courtrooms, community networks, or policy tables, remains unwavering. 

The world that KIND envisions is one that prioritizes shared humanity and in which children’s rights and well-being are protected as they migrate alone in search of safety. KIND stands in solidarity with refugees including unaccompanied and separated children across the globe.