Registration, Documentation and Tracing

Registration and documentation of separated and unaccompanied children are essential steps towards tracing and reunifying children with their families. Such separation can be highly traumatic and requires immediate action by a designated body to expedite the process. This is particularly vital when children are very young and far less able to cope without parental care or to remember essential details about their home and parents.

Registration, documentation and tracing should be done in a co-ordinated fashion throughout a particular emergency situation, with all involved agencies using the same forms in order to avoid confusion and errors and ensuring that all documentation forms are included in a central, confidential database. The affected population should be given clear guidance on the process for registration and should be supported throughout the process.

All separated children should be registered as soon as they are identified. Their basic information must be collected, photograph taken, and medical screening done. All belongings and clothing should be listed and retained with the child. Particularly for young children, the registration process must include gathering information from any adults or older children who may be able to provide relevant information. In some situations rapid action can permit immediate reunification with parents or relatives, and such action should not necessarily wait until full documentation has been completed.

Parents and caretakers who have lost children should also be able to submit tracing requests. Children and adults should be kept fully informed of the process and reunited or in contact with located family members or relatives as quickly as possible.

Tracing of family members is the next step, even if family reunification is not immediately possible. The priority is to locate parents, other family members, or relatives in the area who may be able to provide interim care for children without adequate care. Precautions should be made when sharing information for tracing purposes to ensure the child or their family members are not placed at risk.

The literature in this section includes procedural guidance and documentation forms for registering and tracing children and parents, as well as descriptions of documentation and tracing programs.

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The Lost Ones: Emergency Care and Family Tracing for Separated Children from Birth to Five Years

Marie de la Soudière, Jan Williamson, Jacqueline Botte, 01 Apr 2007

This document is intended to provide concrete advice on how to put the guiding principles common to most child protection actors into practice. Though cultural traditions and customs may require the advice to be adapted to the specific context, the authors believe that the advice provided is grounded in sufficiently broad experience to guide measures that ensure children under five are not separated when this can be avoided, and, if separated, can be reunited with their families as quickly as possible.

Determining the Best Interests of Unaccompanied and Separated Children: Lessons from Guinea

International Rescue Committee, 2007

A report outlining lessons learned in identifying durable solutions for unaccompanied and separated children in Guinea.

The Lost Ones. Emergency Care and Family Tracing for Separated Children from Birth to Five Years

Save the Children Alliance, UNHCR, UNICEF and OHCHR, 2007

Guidance on how to care for the children under five who are separated from their families in emergencies. Includes chapters on tracing, registering, verification, reunification, and the provision of care to meet developmental needs.

Issue Brief Number Three: Child Care, An Essential Service for Disaster Recovery

Save the Children, 2007

A short paper on the importance of child care provision as a critical service in helping local communities recover post disaster. It gives 4 policy recommendations for protecting and restoring child care infrastructure.

IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings

Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 31 Dec 2006

Guidelines for a multi-sectoral response to the most urgent mental health and psychosocial issues in emergency situations.

UNHCR Guidelines on Formal Determinations of the Best Interests of the Child

UNHCR, 2006

Guidelines for when and how to make a decision regarding the best interests of the child in the case of emergencies. Includes useful information for addressing unaccompanied and separated children including, temporary and alternative care arrangements, tracing and reunification, and child participation.

Seeking Asylum Alone: Unaccompanied and Separated Children and Refugee Protection in the United States

Jacqueline Bhabha and Susan Schmidt, 2006

The report details the scale and nature of migritaion by children entering the United States. It includes policy analysis and recommendations around the protection of seperated and unaccompanied children.

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Legal and Policy Frameworks to Protect the Rights Of Vulnerable Children in Southern Africa

Save the Children UK South Africa Programme, 2006

Reviews legal and policy frameworks for the protection of OVC rights in 10 Southern African countries. Includes key concerns and recommendations. Appendix includes country-specific details of National Policies on Orphans and Vulnerable Children and National Plans of Action.

UNICEF Technical Notes - Special Considerations for Programming in Unstable Situations: Chapter 4

UNICEF, 2006

Practical guidance on responding to the protection and care needs of children separated from their families, with sections on consideration of and arrangements for interim care, family reunion, and alternative long-term placements.

Review of Save the Children's New Beginnings for Children Affected by Armed Conflict and Violence Program in Sri Lanka

John Williamson and Malia Robinson, 2006

An evaluation of a programme in Sri Lanka that aimed to resettle and reintegrate children affected by armed conflict, prevent and respond to child abuse, and develop community based alternatives to institutional care.