Unaccompanied Ukrainian children face difficulties in Slovakia. (source: TASR)
They lack access to healthcare, have very little money, and on weekends some are forced to sleep on trains because dormitories are closed. According to Children’s Commissioner Jozef Mikloško, there are an estimated 5,500 underage Ukrainian students in Slovakia without parental care, of whom around 1,000 have no legal representative at all, reports the SITA newswire.
As a result, these children struggle not only to find part-time work but also to meet basic needs. The situation is worsening, with hundreds of new children arriving in Slovakia every month through Ukrainian intermediary agencies.
“Lost generation”
Between April and June, the Education Ministry conducted a survey in the Bratislava, Banská Bystrica, Prešov and Košice Regions – which have the highest numbers of Ukrainian students – to establish their conditions in secondary schools and dormitories. Surveys in the remaining regions will follow.
Mikloško warns that these children are excluded from basic protections and rights, stressing that a systemic solution is needed to avoid a “lost generation” of children growing up without proper care, support, education or prospects. Rules also need to be introduced on who is allowed to come to Slovakia, he added, noting that other countries face similar challenges.
The major issue is that these children are without parental care. This does not mean they are without parents – rather, their parents are unable to travel to Slovakia. Often, a single individual is designated to represent dozens of children. In the Prešov and Košice Regions, there are 407 such children; in Bratislava, 155; and in the Banská Bystrica Region, two.
Many of them arrived through intermediary agencies, which hold powers of attorney from parents to represent their children in Slovakia. The agencies usually enrol the children in schools but often do little beyond that. The survey, for example, found 25 minors aged 14–16 in Košice without a legal representative because their powers of attorney had expired at the end of last year. In many cases, agencies also fail to meet their obligations, leaving parents uninformed about where their children study, live or who is caring for them.
Wandering on trains
Healthcare poses another problem. Ukrainian children with temporary residence often lack a paediatrician and struggle to access medical care, as doctors are not obliged to accept them.
The survey also examined dormitory accommodation. In the Prešov and Košice Regions, 434 Ukrainian children live in dormitories; in Bratislava, 516; and in the Banská Bystrica Region, 74. In the latter, dormitories are closed during weekends and public holidays, forcing children to seek temporary accommodation elsewhere or stay with relatives abroad.
Underage children without legal guardians cannot stay in hotels, and many spend weekends wandering on trains because they have nowhere else to go. A lack of money often prevents them from paying for accommodation or food, and in many cases it is teachers or benefactors who step in to help.
Language also remains a significant barrier, particularly for first-year students of primary schools who often refuse to speak Slovak, isolate themselves, and struggle in classes requiring the language.
Rights are violated
“The key areas are systematic language support, securing accommodation including at weekends and holidays, access to healthcare and psychological assistance, as well as resolving the issue of legal representation. Viewed from the perspective of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, it is clear that several fundamental rights of Ukrainian children in Slovakia are objectively restricted or directly violated,” said Mikloško in a press release.
“If these issues are not addressed in a coordinated and long-term manner, Slovakia risks hundreds of children growing up without adequate support. This could lead, as we already see, to social exclusion, radicalisation and long-term problems for society as a whole. Either we find the courage to lend a helping hand to these children today, or in a few years we will be asking ourselves why we allowed them to grow up in anger and hopelessness,” he concluded.
