Refugee Children In Developing Societies

Refugee Children In Developing Societies The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated there were over 9.6 million refugees living worldwide in 2003. That same year the Global IDP estimated that nearly 25 million people were internally displaced in approximately 50 countries. Most of these individuals were children, forced to live for months, sometimes years, in camps.  [1]  According to Grace Michel over 2 million children have died as a direct result of armed conflict. At least 6 million children have been permanently disabled or seriously injured, and more than 1 million have been orphaned or separated from their families.  [2]  . Although numbers are difficult to verifade because of the illegality of much of the cross-border movement of children, as well as lack reliable registration system of refugee children. These figures only account for those who are caught and repatriated but the majority of children go undetected. In addition many countries are unwilling to accept the scale and natur e of the problem. Refugee children And yet despite importance of the refugee children situation only in 1993 UNHCR introduce Guidkine on protection and care refugee children In order to improve and enhance the protection and care of refugee children, UNHCR has adopted a Policy on Refugee Children, endorsed by the UNHCR Executive Committee in October 1993. The UNHCR Guidelines on Refugee Children, first published in 1988, have been updated in the light of the new Policy and are presented in this document. At their core lays the realization of the need which children Refugee children definitely face dangers to their safety and well being than the average child. The brutal interruption of they family life and disruption of community structures by the conflict or natural disaster can deeply affect the physical and psychological well being. Children must also cope with the trauma of loss -of their family members, schools, neighborhoods and communities. In addition, millions of children have been forced to witness or even take part in horrifying acts of violence Sexual abuse and violence is another experience of many refugee children. Children are dependent on adults help, international organization and host countries generosity. Refugee children need to be providing with the basic needs like the nutrition, water and sanitation, suitable shelter and health care including health education. Also for many refugee children the basic need is accessing education to provide better future job opportunities. Many children especially on a first instance need f ood and urgent shelter, sleeping outdoors exposed to higher risks of contracting malaria or infections, not to mention the feeling of safety. They need safeguard against economic exploitation as they often are forced to work in fields belonging to host communities in exchange for food or low pay. Refugee children need a governments protection against ethnic and religion discrimination from host countries population and protection against sexual violence, especially refugee ophrense. . Finally Children need to help with tracking separated family. A number of children called for the authorities to stop abusing, imprisoning and repatriating them to their home countries, while others said they should be entitled to free education in the host countries. Southern Africa Child migrants tell all 29 April 2008 Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), Southern Africa Child migrants tell all, 29 April 2008, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/48200579b.html [accessed 3 December 2009] Health SUMMARY OF INTERNATIONAL TREATIES TO PROTECT CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT Internet: http://www.unicef.org United Nations Childrens Fund UNICEF House, OPSCEN Health is the basic need very important aspect of refuge children well-being. First instance is to secure for refugee children to basic needs like access to clean water, nutrition, sufficient shelter, and access to medical services including hospitals and psychological and professional therapy assistance. I terms of water and shelter important is to organize a safety zone where children can fell comfortable and have access to food and clean water any time of the day and night. The emergency hospitals should provide necessary help in terms illness and injury and technical assistance for expectant mothers and maternity cases, and nursing mothers. More difficult cases should be direct to local hospitals. Good step in prevention of diesis, HIV/Aids spreads among children is health education. As well develop preventive health care and abolish harmful traditional practices, especial toward young girls comment among Africans tribes. The disruption and insecurity in refugee situations can harm childrens physical, intellectual, psychological, cultural and social development. In addition, children suffer or witness the torture or murder of family members or other forms of abuse or violence. Unaccompanied children are particularly vulnerable. First and foremost, the emotional well-being of children is influenced by the protection and care they receive from their families and communities. Adults often suffer greatly in refugee situations; this can Influence their ability to provide for their children. Sometimes parental distress results in child abuse, abandonment, family strife and other forms of family disintegration. During refugee situations, children face greater risks to their psychological development. Hardships in refugee situations are chronic. Children may be living in constant fear or anxiety; parents may be too stressed or traumatized to give good care; children may suffer from malnutrition and illness. Children are affected not only by what happens to them, but by what they are deprived of, for example missing out on developmental essentials such as play and school. Children need more than services which are directed just to them. Preschool play groups, for example, serve an important purpose, but if a parent cannot meet the childs emotional needs because the parent is too physically weak or emotionally stressed, then the childs greater developmental need is for the parent to receive help. First objective must be to restore normalcy, that is, to help the family function as normally as possible ensure existing a daily routine which increase they security and feeing of prediction. When life becomes stable, when they can rely on good things happening on a predictable basis, such as eating, going to school, playing, the sense of normalcy gives psychological security. Important from point of psychosocial well-being of refugee children is long assistance with information regarding they situation, rights and responsibilities as well as future possibilities. Education is a basic service which should be provide to all children, including refugee children. Unfortunately this service is less reachable for them despite fact that many young people believe that education is essential to their survival, protection and full recovery from their experience of armed conflict and disasters. They see in education the answers to their need for self-respect, economic and job opportunity and the voice in society. Education also represents an essential condition to peace and security of community and family. Yet, despite of central role in their lives, refugee children find quite often difficultly to access education. While the primary school education is more accusable for children, younger people find more difficult to get into higher education The major barriers to enter education can lay in sort of obstacles like is high cost of attending school and transportation problems, language and custom barriers, especially for girls. For example in Uganda, al though Universal Primary Education was instituted for all children including refugee, costs for materials and uniforms remained out of reach for most young people in the war-torn north. Non-tuition costs for primary school in northern Uganda averaged $120 per year, and secondary school costs were about $350 per year in a country where the estimated annual per capita income was $140 in 2001 Competing responsibilities are next major obstacles to enroll education. Teen parents, heads of households and orphans have particular difficulties obtaining education because, in addition to caring for themselves, they had the added responsibilities of caring for younger siblings and sometimes their own children. On the top of this obstacles there is the lack of facilities accommodate children and teaching staff, lack of flexible hours to accommodate work and family responsibilities and/or vocational and skills training linked to jobs . Sierra Leone is a good illustration of this problem where young people viewed education as a way to establish the peace, and said that access to education opportunities would help them feel less excluded from society, especially for demobilized soldiers who need to gain skills and access trainings to help them in job market. Educational opportunities and jobs are denied to girls who drown them into commercial sex work market or early marriages. The barriers can lay also in the host country policies. In Albania during the refugee crisis of 1999, Albanian Kosovars were welcomed to take refuge in camps and urban areas in Albania, but the government did not allow all young people immediate access to public education. Some refugees entered public schools, and some did not. Some refugees set up their own schools without initial external support and still others were attracted to schools opened by religious groups during the crisis. Girls situation is even more dramatic, despite commitments to gender equality in education. Girls dont have equal access to education, compared with their male refugee. For instance, 60 percent of girls in Sierra Leone were not attending primary school, and at least 76 percent did not attend secondary school, compared to 71 percent of boys. In northern Uganda, boys were more likely to complete primary school and did better on Primary Leaving Examinations than girls, and fewer girls went on to secondary school. Most girls and boys in each region agreed that, in general, parents valued boys education more than that of girls. Girls also said inadequate clothing, security and sanitary supplies kept many out of school. According to UNHCR approximately 1 million refugee children are enrolled in UNHCR education support program. 40 percent of enrolled are girls and adelnece women, 8 percent are enrolled at pre=school, 82% are attending primer school and 9 percent benefit from secondary school. Only 1 percent is attending higher education system. Page 7 Document Summary note on UNHCR s strategy and Activities Concerning refugee children Geneva may 2002 http://docstore.ingenta.com/cgi-bin/ds_deliver/1/u/d/ISIS/53779900.1/oup/reflaw/2003/00000015/00000001/art00149/08C6A8EBB1C9214B1259885548168C930EA581BF55.pdf?link=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/error/deliveryformat=pd The major solution to education problem is ensuring that all refugee children have access to primary and basic education and where possible secondary and professional education will help reduce the risk of exploitation. Special programs should be tailored to the needs of girls who have dropped out of school to reduce the risk of violence abuse. Children not only refugee should be educated on their rights. Various forms of social and life skills training will help young people to make better life choices and help them protect themselves from exploitation. Equal participation of girls in school should be actively promoted. The community also should be involved in recruiting and managing teaching staff and educators whom they feel they can trust, as teachers can also be sexual abusers. Cancellation of school fees or low cost of education should be placed. Furthermore, the clubs and counseling after school offering support and relax. Ensure Access to Education SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR REFUGEE CHILDREN Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Refugees, Returnees and Internally Disp Important is to mention of education for disable refugee children who quite often safer isolation from community due to their conditions. Children with disabilities often do not get any support and services they need like physical rehabilitation, specialized education and social integration are sometimes neglected. Some times families, health workers and teachers have not understood the importance of including disabled children in normal patterns of activity. In some refugee situations, rehabilitation services are not provided because nationals do not have access to such services but still teachers should be encouraged to include disabled children in their classes whenever possible. Clear guidelines should be given on the physical needs of children with various types of disabilities. A positive attitude towards children with disabilities must be encouraged. SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR REFUGEE CHILDREN Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons Refugee children, particularly unaccompanied and separated from families children often can find them at risk of sexual abuse and violence. Their limited ability to protect themselves and limited protection or lack of protection from the law of the host countries and international institution make them varounable to sextioal explotaion. In many cases, trafficking may involve payment to child family or even child themselves Child abuse and exploitation within the family is much more complex challenge as sexual violence within the family is almost always seen as a private matter that should not involve outsiders; as a result, an abused child may be blamed for the incident and be further victimized. Also the abuse is cared by the person responsible for protecting and caring for the child. The teenage mothers especially described pitiful and harsh lives: I have to sleep with so many men to make 1500, so that I can feedmyself and my child. They pay me 300 each time, but if I am lucky and I get an NGO worker he can pay me 1500 at one time and sometimes I get 2000 (girl mother in Guinea) or I sleep with different men but mostly NGO workers because I have to eat and feed my child (girl mother in Liberia) Guinea Its difficult to escape the trap of those [NGO] people; they use the food as bait to get you to sex with them. (refugee child) page 17 Protecting children from the protectors: lessons from West Africa by Asmita Naik 15 october 2002 Force Migration review Displaced children and adolescents: challenges and opportunitiesPer Protecting Children in Emergencies Escalating Threats to Children Must Be Addressed VOL.1, NO.1 SPRING 2005 Safe the Children SC-glob-apr05.pdf Although numbers are difficult to estimate because of the illegality of much of the cross-border movement of children, as well as lack relaible registration refugee children. These figures only account for those who are caught and repatriated but the majority of children go undetected. In addision many countries are unvilling to accept the scale and nautre of the problem The children who told their stories in the book called for better protection in host countries, teaching children and communities about the dangers of travelling to and living in foreign countries, and for a halt to the abuse, imprisonment and forced repatriation often inflicted on them. Refugees from armed conflicts worldwide increased from 2.4 million in 1974 to more than 27.4 million in 1996, with another 30 million people displaced within their own countries. Children and women make up an estimated 80 percent of displaced populations.* Children are affected by war in many ways, but one of the SUMMARY OF INTERNATIONAL TREATIES TO PROTECT CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT At any one time, more than 300,000 children worldwide are fighting as soldiers with government forces or armed opposition groups,13 accounting for 10 percent of the combatants in ongoing conflicts.14 Children under the age of 18-some as young as seven-are actively participating in hostilities in 27 countries worldwide.15 Since 1990, over 2 million children have died as a direct result of armed conflict. At least 6 million children have been permanently disabled or seriously injured, and more than 1 million have been orphaned or separated from their families. 1 Graca Machel, The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, delivered September 2000, www.unifem.org/index.php?f_page_pid=97, accessed 11 March 2005. In 2003, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated there were over 9.6 million refugees living worldwide.24 That same year the Global IDP Project estimated that nearly 25 million people were internally displaced in approximately 50 countries.25 Most of these individuals were children, forced to live for months, sometimes years, in camps. When disaster strikes, families suffer multiple and severe disruptions: not only do they lose their homes and livelihoods, but they often lose their autonomy, livelihoods, and dignity in the camps that are supposed to provide humanitarian relief and protection. Protecting Children in Emergencies Escalating Threats to Children Must Be Addressed VOL.1, NO.1 SPRING 2005 Safe the Children SC-glob-apr05.pdf http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900sid/OCHA-6BCNE8/$file/SC-glob-apr05.pdf?openelement SUMMARY OF INTERNATIONAL TREATIES TO PROTECT CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT Internet: http://www.unicef.org United Nations Childrens Fund UNICEF House, OPSCEN In the past decade, two million children have been killed in armed conflict. Three times as many have been seriously injured or permanently disabled. Armed conflict kills andmaims more children than soldiers. Civilian fatalities in wartime have climbed from 5 percent at the turn of the century to more than 90 percent in the wars of the 1990s. Refugees from armed conflicts worldwide increased from 2.4 million in 1974 to more than 27.4 million in 1996, with another 30 million people displaced within their own countries. Children and women make up an estimated 80 percent of displaced populations.* Children remain susceptible to the physical dangers, as well as to the lasting psychological and social effects of war, once a conflict has ended. Children are vulnerable to physical dangerfrom millions of existing landmines and unexploded ordnance. Children must also cope with the trauma of loss -of their family members, schools, neighborhoods and communities. In addition, millions of children have been forced to witness or even take part in horrifying acts of violence. One UNICEF survey in Rwanda found that nearly 80 percent of the children had lost immediate family members and more than one-third of these had actually witnessed their murder. Children have become targets, not incidental casualties, of armed conflict. War violates every right of a child -the right to life, the right to be with family and community, the right to health and education, the right to the development of the personality, and the right to be nurtured and protected. It is a basic need of children to be protected and cared for when conflicts threaten, and the implementation of international human rights and humanitarian law addresses these needs. A number of international treaties exist to provide for the legal protection and care of children. Too often these treaties are ignored, and the world community must do everything possible to see that these treaties are complied with in all areas of the world. * Education is a basic service which should be provide to all children, including refugee children. Unfortunately this service is less reachable for them despite fact that many young people believe that education is essential to their survival, protection and full recovery from their experience of armed conflict and disasters. They see in education the answers to their need for self-respect, economic and job opportunity and the voice in society. Education also represents an essential condition to peace and security of community and family. Yet, despite of central role in their lives, refugee children find quite often difficultly to access education. While the primary school education is more accusable for children, younger people find more difficult to get into higher education The major barriers to enter education can lay in sort of obstacles like is high cost of attending school and transportation problems, languge and custom barriers. especially for girls. For example in Uganda, alt hough Universal Primary Education was instituted for all children including refugee, costs for materials and uniforms remained out of reach for most young people in the war-torn north. Non-tuition costs for primary school in northern Uganda averaged $120 per year, and secondary school costs were about $350 per year in a country where the estimated annual per capita income was $140 in 2001 Competing responsibilities are next major obsticuls to enroll education. Teen parents, heads of households and orphans have particular difficulties obtaining education because, in addition to caring for themselves, they had the added responsibilities of caring for younger siblings and sometimes their own children. On the top of this obticols there is the lack of facilities accommodate children and teaching staff, lack of flexible hours to accommodate work and family responsibilities and/or vocational and skills training linked to jobs . Sierra Leone is a good illustration of this problem where young people viewed education as a way to establish the peace, and said that access to education opportunities would help them feel less excluded from society, especially for demobilized soldiers who needs to gain skills and access trenings to help them in job market. Educational opportunities and jobs are denied to girls which drow them into into commercial sex work market or early marriages. The barires can laiy also in the host country policies. In Albania during the refugee crisis of 1999, Albanian Kosovars were welcomed to take refuge in camps and urban areas in Albania, but the government did not allow all young people immediate access to public education. Some refugees entered public schools, and some did not. Some refugees set up their own schools without initial external support and still others were attracted to schools opened by religious groups during the crisis. Girls situation is even more dramatic, despite commitments to gender equality in education. Girls dont have equal access to education, compared with their male refugee. For instance, 60 percent of girls in Sierra Leone were not attending primary school, and at least 76 percent did not attend secondary school, compared to 71 percent of boys. In northern Uganda, boys were more likely to complete primary school and did better on Primary Leaving Examinations than girls, and fewer girls went on to secondary school. Most girls and boys in each region agreed that, in general, parents valued boys education more than that of girls. Girls also said inadequate clothing, security and sanitary supplies kept many out of school. According to UNHCR approcimetly 1 million refugee children are enrold in UNHCR education support program. 40 precent of enlode are girls and adelnece women, 8 pecent are enrold at pre=school, 82% are attending primeryschool and 9 precent benefict from secondary scholl. Only 1 precent is attending higher education system. Pade 7 Document Summary note on UNHCR s strategy and Activities Conserning refugee children Geneva may 2002 http://docstore.ingenta.com/cgi-bin/ds_deliver/1/u/d/ISIS/53779900.1/oup/reflaw/2003/00000015/00000001/art00149/08C6A8EBB1C9214B1259885548168C930EA581BF55.pdf?link=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/error/deliveryformat=pd The majjoir solution to education problem is ensuring that all refugee children have access to primary and basic education and where possible secondary and professional education will help reduce the risk of exploitation. Special programmes should be tailored to the needs of girls who have dropped out of school to reduce the risk of vailence abuce. Children not only refugee should be educated on their rights. Various forms of social and life skills training, will help young people to make better life choices and help them protect themselves from exploitation. Equal participation of girls in school should be actively promoted. The community also should be involved in recruiting and managing teaching staff and educators whom they feel they can trust, as teachers can also be sexual abusers. Councelation of school fees or low cost of education should be placed. Furthermore, the clubs and counseling after school offerring support and relax. Ensure Access to Education SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR REFUGEE CHILDREN Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons Important is to mention of education for disable refugee children who quite often saffer isolation from community due to their conditions. Children with disabilities often do not get any support and services they need like physical rehabilitation, specialized education and social integration are sometimes neglected. Some times families, health workers and teachers have not understood the importance of including disabled children in normal patterns of activity. In some refugee situations, rehabilitation services are not provided because nationals do not have access to such services But still teachers should be encouraged to include disabled children in their classes whenever possible. Clear guidelines should be given on the physical needs of children with various types of disabilities. A positive attitude towards children with disabilities must be encouraged. Futhermore access to secondary school was nearly impossible for most young people in Sierra Leone and northern Uganda, virtually guaranteeing that they would not have the skills necessary to contribute to the economic development of their communities over time. While young refugees from Kosovo attended secondary school more often over all, they still faced major barriers. Fearing overcrowding, the Albanian government delayed entry into secondary school, and mandated that a summer school program be set up for refugee adolescents seeking to enter secondary school in the fall-a policy decision that left many young people idle. Later, Albanians returned to normal secondary schools in Kosovo after years of participating in a parallel school system, but the schools were in bad condition. Many young people in rural areas, especially girls and minority Romas, could not complete or move beyond primary school. Under very difficult security constraints, many Serb young people separated from fam ily members in order to complete their secondary education. Internally displaced young people often face even higher barriers to education than do refugees. For example, some young Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda fared better than Ugandan internally displaced youth because the refugees had help from UNHCR. By contrast, no international agency was charged with the protection and care of all IDPs. Less than 30 percent of school-age children in IDP camps were enrolled on a full-time basis, compared with the 93 percent primary school enrollment rate in other parts of Uganda. Despite the same security constraints, 77 percent of refugee students in northern Uganda were enrolled in primary school in one settlement that also benefited local Ugandan children. At the same time, both IDPs and refugees had equally poor access to secondary school. Young people who were able to attend school said it was difficult to learn. Their classrooms were often overcrowded and broken down or even witho ut walls and a roof. In the Achol Pii refugee settlement in northern Uganda, each teacher served a class of 110 children in their primary school. In all areas, paper, pens and books were lacking. Many teachers had been killed or had taken other jobs for their own economic survival. Those who remained, according to young people, were often unsupportive and badly prepared. Young people disliked teachers talking at them and called their methods old-fashioned and boring. Young people asked for more participatory approaches to teaching and for more opportunities to learn practical and vocational skills. They also asked for more support to help teachers. One young person said, We bring our teachers lunch, so that they will come back to us eac YOUTH SPEAK OUT: New Voices on the Protection and Participation of Young People Affected by Armed Conflict Womens Commission for Refugee Women and Children January 2005 SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR REFUGEE CHILDREN Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons Refugee children often can find themselves at risk of sexual abuse. Their limited ability to protect themselves and limited protection or lack of protection from the law of the host countries law and international institution make them varounable to sextioal explotaion. Refugee children, particularly unaccompanied and separated from families children often can find them at risk of sexual abuse and violence. Their limited ability to protect themselves and limited protection or lack of protection from the law of the host countries law and international institution make them varounable to sextioal explotaion. In many cases, trafficking may involve payment to child family or even child themselves Child abuse and exploitation within the family is mauch more complex challenge as sexual violence within the family is almost always seen as a private matter that should not involve outsiders; as a result, an abused child may be blamed for the incident and be further victimized. Alsow the abuse is cared by the person responsible for the protection . since the person who is responsible for protecting and caring for the child, in many cases a male relative, is doing neither. Sexual violence within the family is almost always seen as a private matter that should not involve outsiders; as a result, an abused child may be blamed for the incident and be further victimized The teenage mothers especially described pitiful and harsh lives: I have to sleep with so manymen to make 1500, so that I can feedmyself and my child. They pay me 300 each time, but if I am lucky and Iget an NGO worker he can pay me 1500 at one time and sometimes I get2000 (girl mother in Guinea) or I sleep with different men but mostly NGO workers because I have to eat and feed my child (girl mother in Liberia) Guinea Its difficult to escape the trap of those [