Schools facing ”huge challenge” with refugee children

The first refugees from Ukraine are on their way to the Faroes, and many more are expected to follow soon.

Preparations are underway for temporary housing, legal documents and a wide range of services across the country.

But schools and daycare centres are poorly equipped to provide any meaningful services to a large number of refugee children at short notice.

“From a humanitarian perspective, we obviously welcome all these refugees with open arms,” says Jacob Eli S. Olsen, chairman of the Teachers’ Association.

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However, Faroese schools have long been struggling to provide adequate services to children with special needs, he adds, and immediate extra funding is needed for the schools to stand any chance of providing proper care for refugee children.

“We need a lot of specialist trained teachers for this task. These children will be facing a big language barrier and will undoubtedly be heavily traumatised.”

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These views are echoed by Jógvan Philbrow, chairman of the Pedagogue Union.

“It is good that these people can come to a safe country like ours. But a sudden influx of refugees will inevitably present our daycare system with huge challenges,” he says.

“Our daycare system is massively understaffed as it is and, as you can imagine, traumatised children arriving in an entirely new environment need a lot of extra care and attention. We do not have this capacity, and we urgently need extra financial resources if we are to help these children in any meaningful way.”

In short, extra work hours and specially trained professionals are crucial for meeting the big challenge ahead, according to the two union leaders.

Mayor: let’s get creative

Tórshavn mayor Heðin Mortensen says that the city’s healthy finances along with the strong support coming from the public will go a long way toward meeting the challenges ahead.

The exact number of refugees coming to the country has not yet been specified, but Mortensen reckons the capital region can take in 30-50 refugees.

“We’re all aware of the domestic housing shortage, but with a bit of creativity I’m sure we will find some places for refugees to stay,” he says.

“There are a lot of unoccupied houses across the country, and refugees are unlikely to be as fussy about accommodation as Faroese people tend to be. So I’m sure we’ll find a solution.”

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Addressing the shortage of teachers and daycare workers qualified to take proper care of traumatised children facing a big language barrier, the mayor says he expects to see many suitable volunteers offering help.

“We also have a lot of psychologists and social workers who can step in. The City Council is working hard to set up the right team of professionals for the task, and we have the finances to back up these efforts.”

Mortensen is confident of overwhelming parliamentary support for financial assistance to the refugee cause.

Other mayors across the country have expressed similar views.

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

Translated by prosa.fo.

More Faroese News in English.