SEATTLE — A recently released UNICEF report, Uprooted: The growing crisis for refugee and migrant children, outlines the undeniably devastating child migration and displacement emergency of the 21st century. New data demonstrates the extent of this crisis and where global resources should be targeted to protect displaced, migrant and refugee children.
The reports keys finding are the following:
- Fifty million children are currently displaced and nearly 28 million fled violence and insecurity. Of the 50 million, 1 million child asylum seekers still await refugee status.
- Children comprise a disproportionate number of total refugees. Totaling approximately one-third of the world’s total population, children represent nearly half of all refugees.
- From 2014 to 2015, the number of unaccompanied minors applying for asylum tripled.
- Climate change has been one of the leading motivators of child migration. Approximately 11 million children in Eastern and Southern Africa are at risk due to El Niño. An additional 3.5 million children in Central and South America and 2.4 million in the Pacific are at risk of changing weather patterns. In the next decade, climate change is predicted to affect 200 million children.
- The year 2015 saw 5,100 refugee and migrant deaths. The Mediterranean Sea has proven to be the most dangerous migrant route, resulting in 3,600 deaths in 2015. Six-hundred of these deaths were children.
In 2015, almost half of all child refugees protected under U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) fled from Afghanistan and Syria. In Syria, 7.6 million children are in need of assistance, 3 million are internally displaced, and an additional 2 million have obtained refugee status in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. - Turkey hosts the largest number of uprooted children. Relative to population, Lebanon has welcomed the largest number of refugees, with one refugee for every five people. In comparison, there is one refugee for every 530 people in the United Kingdom and one in every 1,200 people in the U.S.
Child refugees are five times more likely to be out of school than a non-refugee child.
A total of 86 percent of the world’s refugees flee to developing countries, with least-developed countries hosting one-fourth of all refugees. - In high-income countries, migrants can be a catalyst for economic growth. Migrants often contribute to taxes and social payments in amounts greater than they receive and make up part of both skilled and unskilled labor forces.
Recognizing the devastating reality of uprooted children, UNICEF and the rest of the international community is striving to protect at-risk children. As emphasized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), children are entitled to rights that allow them to “develop their full potential, free from hunger and want, neglect and abuse.”
In order to uphold these globally recognized rights, UNICEF has taken drastic action to protect displaced children. Through providing humanitarian assistance in the areas of health, nutrition, sanitation, education and protection, millions of children have benefited from UNICEF’s work on-the-ground.
Other U.N. agencies and international organizations, including the UNHCR, are also focusing on combatting the child migration crisis. UNHCR focuses on several refugee emergencies, including some of those with the highest numbers of child refugees: Central African Republic (CAR), Iraq, South Sudan and Syria.
Neglecting to fully address the crisis of uprooted children will have devastating effects. UNICEF’s Executive Director Anthony Lake highlighted this importance, asking, “What price will we all pay if we fail to provide these young people with opportunities for education and a more normal childhood? How will they be able to contribute positively to their societies? If they can’t, not only will their futures be blighted, but their societies will be diminished as well.”
– Anna O’Toole
Photo: Flickr