The Swedish government has announced plans to build specially-designed care centres in Afghanistan where unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Sweden can be returned to. The Swedish Migration Minister insisted that: "The most important thing is to enable the child to be reunited with his parents. If the only basis for a child to stay in Sweden is because they are alone, then it is better that they live in their home country while a search is conducted for their parents". Sweden is not the only country to announce such plans in response to an increase in the number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum. The Danish government has recently made public similar plans while the Netherlands has been funding reception facilities in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo for several years now.

Sources:

- ECRE Weekly Bulletin 26 March 2010

- The Local, 'Sweden plans Afghanistan orphanages'