In 2025, 573 unaccompanied refugee children sought protection in Bulgaria, UNICEF Bulgaria reported on Thursday. UNICEF, in collaboration with the State Agency for Refugees (SAR), municipalities, and partner organizations, will launch a national communication campaign to promote foster care for unaccompanied children seeking protection in Bulgaria.
UNICEF noted that these are children who came to Bulgaria alone, with no parent or responsible adult, who need safety, care, stability, and the opportunity to grow up in an environment as close to a family as possible.
The campaign is part of a pilot project dedicated to establishing alternative social services for unaccompanied refugee children. The project is co-funded by the EU and implemented by SAR under the Council of Ministers in partnership with UNICEF Bulgaria, by the International Organization for Migration, and the municipalities of Burgas, Ivaylovgrad, Malko Tarnovo, and Tundzha. The campaign is carried out with the support of the Social Assistance Agency, which manages and implements activities aimed at strengthening, promoting, and developing foster care at the national level, with the participation of municipalities, as an alternative form of care for at-risk children in a family environment.
SAR Chair Dimitar Ivanov said: “For us, as an institution authorized to implement state policy in the area of asylum, it is important that we be able to give these children hope and a future. And we will do so when we create a sustainable model of social support, not merely within the framework of a single project, nor on a piecemeal basis. We will see results when we build upon today’s care for unaccompanied children in SAR’s Safe Zones by expanding it into alternative social services in family-style centres tomorrow. The positive examples of refugee children who have successfully settled here, and the first foster families for unaccompanied children who have sought protection in our country, even though there are far fewer than we would like, give us reason to believe that we can.”
According to data from the Social Assistance Agency, in 2025, the country’s Child Protection departments handled 174 cases involving unaccompanied children who were foreign nationals, for whom protective measures were taken. In 155 of those cases, support was provided through residential care services, including family-style placement centres, crisis centres, and transitional housing. Another 15 children were placed with relatives, and four children were placed with foster families.
UNICEF Representative in Bulgaria, Mio Nemoto, noted that no child should have to face the hardships of migration alone. When an unaccompanied child arrives in Bulgaria, they need not only protection but also care, stability, and human support. Family-based foster care gives the child a chance to face the future without being alone.
The initiative encourages more people to become foster parents and provide safe, supportive, and specialized family care to children in need of protection, including unaccompanied refugee and migrant children who have experienced loss, separation, violence, conflict, or forced displacement.
