Refugees International: Issues: Children & Displacement

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Children & Displacement

Concerns

Children are frequently the most at risk when they and their families are displaced by conflict or natural disaster. In conflict settings, children have become easy targets for recruitment by government militias or rebel groups and serve as combatants, porters and sex slaves. Large numbers of children have been forced to enter combat in countries such as Liberia, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Burma and Nepal. Refugees International’s work in areas of conflict allows us to report incidents in which children have been conscripted into military services. We continue to urge action to eliminate the use of child soldiers.

Upon return from conflict, former child soldiers often find themselves without options as they try to reenter civilian life in their communities. Those who want to go to school find that the longer they have been out of school, the more difficult it is to go back, especially in the absence of “catch up” programs. Refugees International regularly advocates for more resources towards formal education, skills training and business training opportunities to help former child soldiers become productive members in their society.

Refugees International also works to ensure that displaced children have access to educational opportunities. Even if children are able to escape direct involvement in conflict, their access to education is affected. In some countries, children living in refugee or displaced persons’ camps can only attend camp schools which don’t go beyond the secondary level, effectively denying them the right to pursue higher education.

Children born to parents in a country other than their own, where the parents came in search of asylum, can find themselves without a nationality. In nations such as Thailand where millions of Burmese have been fleeing to escape the conflict in Burma, children born to Burmese and viewed by the Thais as migrants are denied birth certificates, rendering them stateless. These children grow up in limbo without access to proper education, public healthcare and other social welfare programs. Refugees International is calling for every child to be registered at birth and granted nationality and is working to ensure that stateless people receive the services they need.

Accomplishments

Refugees International has sought to bring attention to the needs of children affected by conflict to policy makers in the United Nations and the United States. Here are a few of our accomplishments:

In July 2005, RI briefed members of the 84th Session of the UN’s Human Rights Committee on the issue of statelessness. RI also participated in a focused discussion addressing human rights issues in Thailand, in which several organizations highlighted the problems facing children who lack citizenship. As a result of these interventions, Committee members pressed state delegations from Thailand, Slovenia and Syria with targeted inquiries about nationality, birth registration, access to healthcare and education, trafficking of asylum/refuge-seeking children and issues related to other basic rights.

Thanks to the generosity of the people of Hanover, NH, Refugees International has donated much needed funds to schools in tsunami-affected areas of Sri Lanka to help them rebuild and purchase school supplies. Read more.