Overview
A crisis of unprecedented proportions is unfolding for children forced to flee conflict and insecurity. The international community is failing to provide the support they need. Despite the fact that children make up half the world’s refugees, it is estimated that less than 5% of humanitarian funding is dedicated to child protection and education. There is a chronic underfunding of UN appeals for humanitarian response in countries where the largest numbers of children are fleeing conflict – including Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia, where appeals are under-funded by an average of 60%. In the countries where since 2015 the largest numbers of children have been newly displaced such as Yemen, Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) the figures tell the same story of consistent underfunding and deprioritisation. More shocking still is the fact that across countries where the largest numbers of children are displaced by conflict it is education and protection that are among the most severely under-funded sectors.
As a result, children caught up in conflict, and their families, face an impossible choice. To risk their lives if they stay, or to risk their futures if they leave. As civilian populations are increasingly targeted in conflicts around the world, children face a myriad of threats and dangers – from death and injury, through to abuse, exploitation, torture and recruitment into armed groups. Yet even when children and their families take the perilous, often life endangering decision to leave behind everything they know and, often, everyone they love, they are not met with the protection, refuge and safety that our international laws and conventions promise. On the contrary, they often face similar threats to those they did at home.
It is incumbent upon world leaders and the international community to do everything possible to ensure that the rights of children are upheld, wherever they are. This means developing a Global Action Plan for children forced to flee, that would redouble political and financial commitment to tackle the growing crisis head-on, and ensure that:
- No child forced to flee is out of school for more than one month - by mobilising $4bn for education in emergencies by 2020
- Child Protection funding requests in UN appeals are fully funded - with no child protection efforts failing for lack of finance.
- No child forced to flee is criminalised - by committing to eliminate child detention of displaced minors.
- There are guaranteed safe and legal routes for children forced to flee, with countries resettling a fair share of displaced children – particularly unaccompanied minors.
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