Udenrigsudvalget 2016-17
URU Alm.del Bilag 201
Offentligt
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A child is a child
Protecting children on the move from violence, abuse and exploitation
Executive Summary
 URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 201: Ny UNICEF rapport: Femdobling i antal af børn der flygter alene siden 2010
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Millions of children are on the move across international borders
– fleeing violence and conflict, disaster or poverty, in pursuit of
a better life. Hundreds of thousands move on their own. When
they encounter few opportunities to move legally, children resort
to dangerous routes and engage smugglers to help them cross
borders. Serious gaps in the laws, policies and services meant to
protect children on the move further leave refugee and migrant
children bereft of protection and care. Deprived, unprotected,
and often alone, children on the move can become easy prey for
traffickers and others who abuse and exploit them.
Alarming numbers of children are moving alone
Many children move alone and face particularly grave risks. In parts
of the world, the number of children moving on their own has
skyrocketed. On the dangerous Central Mediterranean Sea passage
from North Africa to Europe, 92 per cent of children who arrived in
Italy in 2016 and the first two months of 2017 were unaccompanied,
up from 75 per cent in 2015. At least 300,000 unaccompanied
and separated children moving across borders were registered in
80 countries in 2015–2016 – a near fivefold increase from 66,000
in 2010–2011. The total number of unaccompanied and separated
children on the move worldwide is likely much higher.
Specific reasons motivate children to undertake journeys alone.
Many seek to reunite with family members already abroad. Others
pursue their families’ aspirations for this generation to have a
better life. Perceptions of the potential benefits of children moving,
especially to certain destinations, filter through social networks.
Other factors include family breakdown, domestic violence, child
marriage and forced conscription.
Without safe and legal pathways, children’s journeys are rife
with risk and exploitation
Whatever their motivation, children often find few opportunities to
move legally. Family reunification, humanitarian visas and refugee
resettlement spots, and work or study visas are out of reach for
most. But barriers to legal migration do not stop people from
moving, they only push them underground.
Wherever families and children desperate to move encounter
barriers, smuggling in human beings thrives. Smugglers range
from people helping others in need for a fee to organized criminal
networks that traffick children into hazardous and exploitative
situations.
Once children and families place their fates in the hands of
smugglers, the transaction can readily take a turn towards abuse
or exploitation – especially when children and families incur debts
to pay smugglers’ fees. Europol estimates that 20 per cent of
suspected smugglers on their radar have ties to human trafficking –
they help children cross borders, only to sell them into exploitation,
sometimes akin to contemporary forms of slavery.
Some routes are particularly rife with risks. In a recent International
Organization for Migration survey, over three-quarters of
1,600 children aged 14–17 who arrived in Italy via the Central
Mediterranean route reported experiences such as being held
against their will or being forced to work without pay at some point
during their journeys – indications that they may have been trafficked
or otherwise exploited. Traffickers and other exploiters thrive
especially where state institutions are weak, where organized crime
abounds, and also where migrants become stuck and desperate.
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A child is a child:
Protecting children on the move from violence, exploitation and abuse
 URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 201: Ny UNICEF rapport: Femdobling i antal af børn der flygter alene siden 2010
As States struggle to manage migration, children fall through
the cracks
As large numbers of refugees and migrants arrive, children among
them are routinely left in conditions that would be deemed
unacceptable for native-born children. They languish in overcrowded
shelters, end up in makeshift camps or are left exposed to the
dangers of life on the streets. Sometimes, compatriots force them to
work under exploitative conditions in exchange for shelter and food.
Mistrust of authorities and fear of detention and deportation keep
children from coming forward to seek protection and support.
Harsh border enforcement policies leave children in limbo and
exacerbate their risk of exploitation
Border closures and aggressive pushback measures can leave children
and their families stranded in countries where they do not want to
stay, are not welcome, or have few prospects. Unable to move on
or go back, they are trapped in prolonged limbo that feeds anxiety,
despair and self-harm, as documented among children in Greece and
in Australian processing facilities in Nauru.
Some children avoid authorities for fear of detention, living in the
streets under abysmal conditions and sometimes selling sex or
resorting to petty crime as they save up to pay smugglers to facilitate
their onward journeys.
Children on the move are children, first and foremost – they
need protection
The Convention on the Rights of the Child protects every child,
everywhere. All children, regardless of legal status, nationality or
statelessness, have the right to be protected from harm, obtain such
essential services as health care and education, be with their families,
and have their best interests guide decisions that affect them.
Yet in practice, children on the move often suffer violations of their
rights because of their migrant status. The way children on the move
are treated varies widely from State to State, and the responsibility to
care for them often falls too heavily on poorer countries. Even children
fleeing violence and conflict often do not get the protection they need,
particularly when refugee protection is curtailed in law or practice.
Sharing, not shifting, the responsibility to protect children on
the move
The current system is failing refugee and migrant children. States
have a responsibility to uphold their rights and protect all children
within their borders, without exception.
When world leaders adopted the New York Declaration for
Refugees and Migrants in September 2016, they acknowledged the
urgent and unmet needs of vulnerable child migrants – especially
unaccompanied and separated children – who do not qualify for
international protection as refugees and who may need assistance.
It is now time to act.
Children’s rights are not confined by national borders. Where conflict
or disaster, neglect, abuse and marginalization drive children to
move, their rights move with them. Leadership is urgently required
to forge global agreement on how to protect and guarantee the
rights of children as they move, no matter who or where they are.
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 URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 201: Ny UNICEF rapport: Femdobling i antal af børn der flygter alene siden 2010
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A child is a child:
Protecting children on the move from violence, exploitation and abuse
 URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 201: Ny UNICEF rapport: Femdobling i antal af børn der flygter alene siden 2010
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 URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 201: Ny UNICEF rapport: Femdobling i antal af børn der flygter alene siden 2010
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A child is a child:
Protecting children on the move from violence, exploitation and abuse
 URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 201: Ny UNICEF rapport: Femdobling i antal af børn der flygter alene siden 2010
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 URU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 201: Ny UNICEF rapport: Femdobling i antal af børn der flygter alene siden 2010
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A child is a child:
Protecting children on the move from violence, exploitation and abuse