[This course will take you about 2h20 to complete.]

In the year ending March 2021, 2,044 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) arrived in the UK seeking asylum. Some of these children needed to be looked after in foster care. Albania is one of the main countries of origin for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the UK.

If you are interested in fostering an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child, or you are preparing to welcome one into your home, it will be helpful for you to know about the challenges they may have experienced, those they might face once in the UK, and how to support them through the asylum-seeking process.

In this course, you will learn:
- The reasons a child might be unaccompanied and seeking asylum.
- How to overcome various challenges together, including language barriers and cultural differences.
- General information about Albania.
- How to keep the child’s culture and customs alive, whilst also helping them understand UK culture and learn the language.
- Common mental health issues in asylum-seeking children.
- How to be aware of and deal with prejudice, and other challenges your foster child might face.
- How to apply for asylum in the UK, and how to support the child through the process.