The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday that the number of kids attempting to avoid conflict, violence, and other crises is at an all-time high. According to the organisation, 36.5 million children were forced from their homes by the end of 2021.
This figure includes about 22.8 million kids who have been internally displaced due to conflict and violence, as well as 13.7 million kids who are refugees and asylum seekers. Children who have been uprooted by natural catastrophes and climate change are not included in the statistics, nor are those uprooted in 2022 or as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.
The children’s organisation said that the record numbers were a ‘direct result of cascading crises — including acute and protracted conflicts such as in Afghanistan, fragility in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo or Yemen’.
The organisation’s executive director Catherine Russell said, ‘I hope this alarming number will move governments to prevent children from being displaced in the first place — and when they are displaced, to ensure their access to education, protection, and other critical services that support their wellbeing and development now and in the future’.
According to UNICEF, the number of refugees globally has more than quadrupled in the last ten years, with children making up roughly half of the total. More than a third of displaced children (36% or 3.9 million) live in sub-Saharan Africa, followed by 25% (2.6 million) in Europe and Central Asia and 13% (1.4 million) in the Middle East and North Africa.
As per UNICEF, children who have been compelled to leave their families suffer substantial threats to their safety and well-being. Thousands of unaccompanied or separated children are at risk of being victims of abuse, exploitation, and trafficking. Children make up 34% of the victims of human trafficking that have been identified globally.
In addition to calling for a variety of initiatives, UNICEF encouraged UN member states to honour their pledges to defend the rights of children who have been displaced.
These include providing equal assistance to all children, regardless of their place of origin and assuring access to necessities like health care and education. Other actions demanded included halting abusive border control procedures and the imprisonment of children arriving as immigrants.
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