Separated children

About the project

The Ombudsman for Children’s Office has consistently highlighted concerns regarding the situation of separated children seeking asylum at a domestic and international level, including with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

In 2009, the OCO undertook a project with separated children. The project involved the participation of 35 separated children living in the Dublin area.

Separated children are defined by the separated children in Europe Programme as “children under 18 years of age who are outside their country of origin and separated from both parents, or previous/legal customary primary care giver”.

The project ran from January 2009 to October 2009 and the young people worked on the project intensively during their summer holidays. The aim of the project was to better understand the lives and level of care afforded to separated children in Ireland by hearing directly from them. There are three principal outputs from the project: a guidebook compiled by the young people, a story book setting out their stories and a project report. For copies of the other two publications, please contact the Ombudsman for Children’s Office.

"Our skin was on fire"

Project publications

Separated Children Living in Ireland (November 2009)

This report is a result of the separated children project run by the OCO. It contains our comments and recommendations.

"All I Have to Say" (November 2009)

We invited children and young people on the project to tell their stories. Some of them wrote their own stories. Others chose to work with a writer who penned their words with them. The video below is an extract from the soundscapes of spoken excerpts contained in this book.

The full CD is available by emailing oco@oco.ie

Dublin: Your City/Our City (November 2009)

This guide book was compiled by separated childen and is intended to assist other separated young people who are newly arrived in Dublin.