- Understand the fundamental rights of children and their application to migration policies
- Recognize critical issues affecting child migrants
- Understand how coordinated child protection systems contribute to better safeguarding the rights of migrant children
Summary
Learning Objective
Learning Objectives
Introduction
Children in the context of migration
Many children engage in migration every year. The types of journeys they take can be as diverse as the ones taken by adult migrants, whether voluntary or forced, independent or accompanied, internal to a country or cross-border.
The motivations that positively or negatively influence a child to leave their home, with or without their families, to seek a better life elsewhere, are complex and multiple. “They include economic reasons, educational aspirations, gender-specific and cultural reasons, personal motivations as well as emergencies, natural disasters and climate change, persecution and humanitarian crises. Some children leave in search of better opportunities whereas others leave from situations of violence, exploitation, abuse, or conflict. Often, different reasons coincide and are inter-related” (Council of Baltic Sea States Secretariat, 2015).
Glossary
child
Every human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.
Glossary
migrant child
Any person below the age of 18, who is moving or has moved across an international border or within a State away from their habitual place of residence regardless of:
- the child’s legal status;
- whether the movement is voluntary or involuntary
- what are the causes of the movement
- what the length of the stay
Child migrants may be unaccompanied, separated or accompanied as they migrate.
Understanding who are “unaccompanied” and “separated” children allows us to better anticipate and respond to the impact of separation on a child, depending on their existing needs and vulnerabilities. Unaccompanied children, because they are travelling on their own and cannot rely on family adults to protect them, are often more likely to be exposed to violence, exploitation and physical harm.
Glossary
unaccompanied children
Children, as defined in Article 1 of the Convention on the Right of the Child, who have been separated from both parents and other relatives and are not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible for doing so.
Glossary
separated children
Children, as defined in Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, who have been separated from both parents, or from their previous legal or customary primary caregiver, but not necessarily from other relatives. These may, therefore, include children accompanied by other adult family members.
While it is important to underline the vulnerability of unaccompanied and separated children, it is equally important to acknowledge children’s agency in making informed decisions, and their capacity for resilience when faced with adversity. Those children who make a deliberate decision to leave home during a crisis, fleeing serious human rights violations, abuse or neglect, or to access services or opportunities, may feel that their changed situation has improved rather than worsened their status.
Accompanied children are those who are presumed to be under the care of their parents or primary caregiver. They are typically referred to as “accompanied children” or, within the context of some immigration procedures, as “dependents of” the principal applicant or claimant (parents or caregivers).
Children affected by migration describes a wider group of children who are not necessarily engaged in mobility but whose lives are deeply affected by the migration of their families, by the migratory practices of the community they live in, or by their individual experience of migration, whether past or future. Examples of children affected by migration include:
- Children who have temporarily left a situation of previous migration but who are still affected by the impact of their migration or who plan to pursue their journeys at a later stage.
- Children who are left behind by their carers (see Family and migration).
- Children affected by statelessness; that is, children who are born to migrant parents who have not acquired the nationality of the country in which they reside (IOM, 2019).
This chapter presents several ways that child migration can be defined. At the same time, it offers a conceptual framework that reaffirms the need to treat migrant children as children first, a stand-alone group, with specific rights and entitlements with a view to sustain their development and their capacity for resilience, self-protection and decision-making.
The importance of managing child migration
Children, adolescents and youth are migrating in increasing numbers, and make up an increasing proportion of the global migrant, asylum-seeking, refugee and displaced population. Available evidence highlights the scale of child migration.
Article / Quotes
1/8 of international migrants are child migrants
Source
Unicef, 2021
Migrant children are a distinct group of migrants, with individual experiences, needs and vulnerabilities, but also with rights and the capacity for resilience and decision-making. Children are a group in need of care and protection, as demonstrated by both the figures available and by the violence and abuse they face during their journey or when they reach their country of destination. “Migrants who are unaccompanied children or separated children are at greater risk of being abused and exploited during their journey; boys and girls may face different gender-based risks. However, in many countries, the protection of migrant children does not feature as a key priority on the political agenda, and systems, including national child protection systems, often fail and ignore them. A child rights-based approach to child migration will help to ensure the realization of the rights and development of migrant children in their countries of origin, transit or arrival, and that migrant children are able to access services without discrimination in line with international and regional legal instruments on the protection of children’s rights.
The protection of migrant children requires transnational cooperation between State and non-State actors. Recent humanitarian crises and large population movements have highlighted the need for robust cross-border protocols and joint efforts between States to address the complexity of mixed migration, to safeguard the rights of migrant children and to ensure safe, orderly and regular migration.
Migrant children are children first and foremost. In many countries, there is substantive evidence suggesting that the treatment and maltreatment of migrant children derives from discrimination.
Key Data Sources
Overall, there are not enough disaggregated data on migrant children. Gaps in data make it difficult to get a real sense of the scale and patterns of the global migration of children (United Nations Children’s Fund [UNICEF], 2018). Some of the key issues in the collection of data on migrant children include:
- Incomplete, unreliable or duplicated data. Unaccompanied children, for instance, who get separated from their guardians or lose them during their journeys, may go undetected; they may avoid being registered by authorities due to fear and mistrust; or they may claim to be older than 18 or accompanied by a guardian, so that they can continue their journeys and not be taken into custody. Others may not know how old they are or claim to be younger than 18 so that they can take advantage of the rights and privileges of being a child, such as access to shelter and schooling
- Differing definitions for age categories. Comparing data on stocks and flows of migrant children and other age groups is difficult because countries disaggregate data using different definitions and categories for age.
- Differing criteria for recording data. Countries differ in how they record data for the same categories. For instance, some European Union Member States record those who claim to be unaccompanied children in the statistics, whereas others only count those recognized as such following an age assessment by an authority.
National sources
- Several countries provide data on international migrant stocks and flows by different age categories; some countries also publish data on people under the age of 18 held in immigration detention.
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), International Data Alliance for Children on the Move (IDAC). A source of data on migrant children and on forcibly displaced children. The data is put together by a cross-sectoral global coalition comprised of governments (including experts from national statistical offices and migration-relevant line ministries), international and regional organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), think tanks, academics, and representatives from civil society. This initiative supports evidence-based policymaking that protects migrant children and empowers them.
International sources
- UNICEF, UNICEF Data: The global go-to data source on children, with specific sections on child migration, child displacement, and on the intersection of child migration/displacement with COVID-19.
- UNICEF, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), IOM, Eurostat and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), A call to action: Protecting children on the move starts with better data, 2018 This joint call for action summarizes data gaps on child migration and urges Member States to prioritize actions to address these evidence gaps.
- UN DESA, International migration stock 2020. Collects and disseminates migration statistics of countries, including data on migrant stocks and flows, with the most recent year being 2020. Data are available for all regions, countries and areas of the world and are disaggregated by age and sex.
- OECD, Database on Immigrants in OECD and non-OECD Countries (DIOC). Presents data on migrant stocks in OECD countries as well as in some non-OECD countries. The data on stocks in OECD countries are generally disaggregated into five-year age groups (including 15–19 and 20–24 years) and the data on stocks in non-OECD countries are recorded in three age groups (15–24 years, 25–64 years and over 65 years).
- UNHCR, Operational Data Portal. Publishes data on migrant arrivals by group (men, women, children and unaccompanied children).
International instruments, initiatives and dialogues
International law and principles
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its optional protocols outline the rights of children, regardless of their migration status. The CRC is an almost universally ratified instrument that constitutes the most all-encompassing basis for the protection of children, including children who are outside their State of origin. The CRC protects every child, regardless of nationality or immigration status, including children who are within the borders of a State and those who come under the State’s jurisdiction while attempting to enter the country’s territory, at airports for instance. In addition, the rights under the CRC apply to all children regardless of the purpose or the conditions of their migration, such as family reunification, labour migration, asylum seeking or trafficking.
Child migrants also have rights under various branches of international law, including human rights law and labour law.
List
Note: This list is not exhaustive.
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United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child general comments |
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Note: This list is not exhaustive.
Regional instruments
Regional instruments strengthen and contextualize provisions outlined in international law for protection of migration children. Examples of regional instruments include the following.
Note: This list is not exhaustive.
Initiatives and commitments
SDG
SDGs relevant to child migration
- TARGET 1.2
Reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions. - TARGET 4.5
Eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations. - TARGET 16.2
End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence and torture against children.
Note: This list is not exhaustive.
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Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration
Through the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, heads of State and governments undertook to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all refugee and migrant children, regardless of their status, to always give primary consideration to the best interests of the child, and to comply with their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
One of the ten core guiding principles of the Global Compact for Migration fosters a child-sensitive approach that promotes existing international legal obligations in relation to the rights of the child, and upholds the principle of the best interests of the child at all times as a primary consideration in all situations concerning children in the context of international migration, including unaccompanied children and separated children.
GCM
GCM objectives relevant to child migration
- Objective 3(d)
Provide newly arrived migrants with targeted, gender-responsive, child-sensitive, accessible and comprehensive information and legal guidance on their rights and obligations, including on compliance with national and local laws, obtaining of work and resident permits, status adjustments, registration with authorities, access to justice to file complaints about rights violations, as well as access to basic services. - Objective 4(e)
Strengthen measures to reduce statelessness, including by registering migrants’ births, ensuring that women and men can equally confer their nationality on their children, and providing nationality to children born in another State‘s territory, especially in situations where a child would otherwise be stateless, fully respecting the human right to a nationality and in accordance with national legislation. - Objective 5(g)
Develop or build on existing national and regional practices for admission and stay of appropriate duration based on compassionate, humanitarian or other considerations for migrants compelled to leave their countries of origin owing to sudden-onset natural disasters and other precarious situations, such as by providing humanitarian visas, private sponsorships, access to education for children, and temporary work permits, while adaptation in or return to their country of origin is not possible - Objective 6(e)Enact and implement national laws that sanction human and labour rights violations, especially in cases of forced and child labour, and cooperate with the private sector, including employers, recruiters, subcontractors and suppliers, to build partnerships that promote conditions for decent work, prevent abuse and exploitation, and ensure that the roles and responsibilities within the recruitment and employment processes are clearly outlined, thereby enhancing supply chain transparency.
- Objective 7
Address and reduce vulnerabilities in migration - Objective 8(c)
Enable migrants to communicate with their families without delay to inform them that they are alive by facilitating access to means of communication along routes and at their destination, including in places of detention, as well as access to consular missions, local authorities and organizations that can provide assistance with family contacts, especially in cases of unaccompanied or separated migrant children, as well as adolescents. - Objective 9(c)
Develop gender-responsive and child-sensitive cooperation protocols along migration routes that outline step-by-step measures to adequately identify and assist smuggled migrants, in accordance with international law, as well as to facilitate cross-border law enforcement and intelligence cooperation in order to prevent and counter smuggling of migrants so as to end impunity for smugglers and prevent irregular migration, while ensuring that counter-smuggling measures are in full respect for human rights - Objective 10(e)
Apply measures that address the particular vulnerabilities of women, men, girls and boys, regardless of their migration status, who have become or are at risk of becoming victims of trafficking in persons and other forms of exploitation, by facilitating access to justice and safe reporting without fear of detention, deportation or penalty, focusing on prevention, identification, appropriate protection and assistance, and addressing specific forms of abuse and exploitation - Objective 11(e)
Ensure that child protection authorities are promptly informed and assigned to participate in procedures for the determination of the best interests of the child once an unaccompanied or separated child crosses an international border, in accordance with international law, including by training border officials in the rights of the child and child-sensitive procedures, such as those that prevent family separation and reunite families when family separation occurs. - Objective 12(d)
Ensure that migrant children are promptly identified at places of first arrival in countries of transit and destination, and, if unaccompanied or separated, are swiftly referred to child protection authorities and other relevant services as well as appointed a competent and impartial legal guardian, that family unity is protected, and that anyone legitimately claiming to be a child is treated as such unless otherwise determined through a multidisciplinary, independent and child-sensitive age assessment. - Objective 13(h)
Protect and respect the rights and best interests of the child at all times, regardless of migration status, by ensuring availability and accessibility of a viable range of alternatives to detention in non-custodial contexts, favouring community-based care arrangements, that ensure access to education and health care, and respect the right to family life and family unity, and by working to end the practice of child detention in the context of international migration. - Objective 15(f)
Provide inclusive and equitable quality education to migrant children and youth, as well as facilitate access to lifelong learning opportunities, including by strengthening the capacities of education systems and by facilitating non-discriminatory access to early childhood development, formal schooling, non-formal education programmes for children for whom the formal system is inaccessible, on-the-job and vocational training, technical education and language training, as well as by fostering partnerships with all stakeholders that can support this endeavour. - Objective 16(i)
Promote school environments that are welcoming and safe, and support the aspirations of migrant children by enhancing relationships within the school community, incorporating evidence-based information about migration into education curricula, and dedicating targeted resources to schools with a high concentration of migrant children for integration activities in order to promote respect for diversity and inclusion, and to prevent all forms of discrimination, including racism, xenophobia and intolerance. - Objective 21(g)
Ensure that return and readmission processes involving children are carried out only after a determination of the best interests of the child and take into account the right to family life and family unity, and that a parent, legal guardian or specialized official accompanies the child throughout the return process, ensuring that appropriate reception, care and reintegration arrangements for children are in place in the country of origin upon return.
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Inter-State policy dialogues
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Note: This list is not exhaustive.