Unaccompanied refugee youth find refuge in Cairo’s new Naimo Center
Written by Reagan Maher, Refugees Thrive International Board Member
This story is the first in a three-part series Refugees Thrive is publishing about the experiences of refugee children to mark World Refugee Day. The series will conclude on June 20, 2019, World Refugee Day.
Mariam’s Story
Mariam is 16. Last year, she fled lifelong conscription in Eritrea’s national military, leaving her parents and siblings in Eritrea and arriving in Cairo alone, a bustling city of 20 million. She is one of nearly 4,000 unaccompanied children registered with the United Nations in Egypt — a number that has more than doubled in the past three years — who have escaped ungoverned militarized clans in Somalia, Janjaweed raids in Darfur, and political imprisonment in Ethiopia. Many children who travel to Egypt without their families are further exploited on their journeys, and like Mariam, do not speak Arabic.
Mariam forged an alliance with other vulnerable children like her on the streets and they moved into a small one-bedroom apartment. The six kids living there took turns sleeping and working to support each other. They formed a network to protect each other — from the human smugglers who often threaten, extort, or kidnap the same children they helped cross the border, and from the gender-based violence (GBV) so many refugee women face.
One of Mariam’s new friends encouraged her to apply for unaccompanied refugee minor status with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the international body responsible for refugee protection in Egypt and many other countries. Official unaccompanied minor status would have given Mariam the opportunity to apply for legal status with Egyptian authorities through which she would be protected from arrest and permitted to access healthcare, financial assistance and education available to officially determined refugee youth. However, Mariam’s official refugee status was complicated because she lost her only form of identification, which proved her age, during her journey to Cairo. UNHCR could not see her immediately and issued her an interview appointment slip months later.
Four months later, Mariam’s first interview with UNHCR did not go well. She was confused and scared, answering complex and emotional questions through a translator about her home, her traumatic journey, and her life in Egypt. Without identification proving her age, the UNHCR official estimated she was over eighteen years old and denied her the 35 USD stipend and other resources provided to unaccompanied children.
Shortly thereafter, Mariam met an Egyptian housing broker who promised to give her a good job helping rent apartments for a cut of his commission. Eager to financially support herself, Mariam believed she was following the man to an empty apartment they would rent out, but instead the man sexually assaulted her. Wounded and afraid, she went to the police station and tried to file a police report, but the officers turned her away because she did not have the home address of her attacker. UNHCR told her that they could not help her without a police report and only provided medical support for life-threatening conditions. Without a valid form of identification, she could not get help from a public hospital.
Wondering how to move forward, Mariam met a new friend who told her about the Naimo Center — a brand-new facility operated by St. Andrews Refugee Services (StARS) that helped youth like her. Mariam made her way to the Naimo Center and walked inside, immediately feeling relief. She saw a group of kids like her sitting together and eating lunch, another group studying, and young girls chasing each other around laughing. For the first time since she left home, she remembered what it felt like to relax.
During her first visit to the Naimo Center, Mariam was greeted by a screening officer who gathered basic information about her. She met a psychosocial caseworker from StARS’ Unaccompanied Children and Youth Program, who spoke Mariam’s mother tongue and understood her history. Mariam ate a hot meal and picked out some new donated clothes. A StARS staff person provided her with the first of monthly food and hygiene boxes that she could share with her roommates. And most importantly, she was referred to a doctor from StARS’ Doctor’s Network for reduced-cost care for her wounds and to StARs’ Gender Based Violence survivors support group. A few days later, Mariam’s new caseworker invited her to come back to the Naimo Center for a longer meeting to develop a plan for Mariam to stay safe and find support.
Let’s fast forward and imagine it’s 2020. Mariam would be 18 now, and she’s back in the Naimo Center where she rediscovered a community that cared for her. Because StARS’ legal team used pathways with UNHCR to successfully appeal her incorrect age-assessment, UNHCR’s monthly stipend and support from StARS allowed Mariam to enroll in and complete StARS’ psycho-educational school for unaccompanied children. When she and her roommates were evicted, Mariam found safe shelter with a community host through StARS’ Community Hosting Program.
Mariam is taking classes and just accepted an offer to join the staff with StARS’ medical team. Once she has a stable salary, she and her friends from the psycho-educational program plan to move to an apartment near the Naimo Center.
Today, Mariam greets unaccompanied children who have just arrived in Cairo at the Naimo Center, knowing they will find the support they need like she did.
Mariam’s story is based on experiences all too common among refugee children. Your donation to Refugees Thrive International generates real impact in the form of timely, crucial services for the most vulnerable refugees in Egypt. Earlier this year, we proudly invested $100,000 to help StARS open the doors of the Naimo Center, which offers refugee youth wide-ranging assistance, including individualized psychosocial services, legal services, medical treatment, education, direct assistance, shelter, and emergency response in times of crisis. Help us make a similar impact next year. Refugees Thrive envisions a world in which all refugees are safe and healthy, refugee rights are respected and protected, and refugees are empowered to make their own decisions about their future. Learn more about Refugees Thrive International on our website or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
