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Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Program

The Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Program assists unaccompanied minor refugees and entrants in developing appropriate skills to enter adulthood and to achieve economic and social self-sufficiency. The minors placed in Wisconsin are not technically "unaccompanied".  They are usually placed with some adult guardian.  Voluntary agencies report the placement arrangements for these children to the State Refugee Coordinator at BMRLS who is charged with monitoring those arrangements.

The program establishes legal responsibility, under State law, to ensure that unaccompanied minor refugees and entrants receive the full range of assistance, care, and services to which all children in the State are entitled; a legal authority is designated to act in place of the child’s unavailable parent(s). Reunification of minors with their parents, or other appropriate adult relatives is encouraged through working with supportive resources such as voluntary refugee resettlement agencies at the State and local levels. Services provided through the program include English language training; career planning; health/mental health needs; socialization skills/adjustment training; family reunification; residential care; education/training; and Ethnic/religious preservation.