MRS > Office of Refugee Programs > Children's Services
USCCB/MRS is a leader among non-governmental agencies in addressing the needs of children forced to flee their homes, and others caught up in the migration phenomenon in the United States. MRS works with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (www.unhcr.ch) and U.S. government agencies to ensure that children languishing in refugee camps without parental advocates are appropriately referred and processed into the U.S. resettlement program. Working with a broad network of Catholic agencies, MRS assists refugee children to resettle with their families and places children traveling without adult relatives in culturally appropriate, caring foster homes through the Unaccompanied Refugee Minors program.
Unaccompanied Refugee and Migrant Children are among the most vulnerable people on earth. Refugee children who have lost their families through war, violence, or other causes are often forgotten when they arrive in refugee camps, alone, scared and, at times, abused and exploited. Another vulnerable population is the children traveling alone to the United States without legal status. Upon entering the country without documentation, they are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security. Without any family to be concerned about their welfare, these children must face alone the uncertainties of being held in the custody of the U.S. government and awaiting their case determination.
Through its Safe Passages program, MRS ensures that children traveling without adult relatives and without legal travel documents are provided a safe haven, and receive appropriate child-welfare standards of care while in the custody of the U.S. government. For children smuggled in and at risk from organized crime, MRS works with more than 30 diocesan offices to determine whether family reunification is a suitable option, and follows up with the children to ensure their well-being.
The Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services (BRYCS) program supports service providers to refugee youth, children, and families through targeted local trainings, development of original resources, and access to information resources through its Web site and online clearinghouse.
Victims of Human Trafficking are forced into inhuman, slave-like conditions as workers in the sex trade, sweatshops, and domestic labor industries. This contemporary slave trade has become as lucrative as the arms trade. Each year, up to two million people worldwide are victims of trafficking, including 20,000 men, women, and children who are brought into the United States, one-third of whom are under the age of eighteen. Traffickers often lure victims into the country under false pretenses and take away their documents to trap them.
Since 2002, MRS has led efforts to combat this modern-day evil through advocacy, increasing public awareness, training and technical assistance to service providers, and direct outreach to the trafficking victims themselves. MRS places trafficked children into foster care, group homes, or independent living arrangements and monitors their care and well-being.