UNICEF: 28m children made homeless by violent conflict

Around 28 million children globally have been made homeless by violent conflict, the latest UNICEF report has said.

The report found that around 10 million children were made refugees, one million child asylum-seekers and the remaining 17 million children displaced by conflict internally.

Children make up nearly half of all refugees; a number which has doubled in the last decade with 45 per cent fleeing from just two countries: Syria and Afghanistan, the report stated.

While fleeing conflict, poverty and violence around the world, 100,000 children did so alone, applying for asylum in 78 countries in 2015; more than three times the number in 2014.

“What’s important is that these children on the move are children and they should be treated as children,” said Ted Chaiban, UNICEF director of Programmes in Geneva. “They need access to services such as education.”

These children often face a multitude of dangers including drowning while fleeing at sea, starvation, murder and rape as well as discrimination and xenophobia from the countries they eventually settle.

The report concludes by imploring the international community to do more to provide protection for these vulnerable children, continuing their education and providing full access to health care and calls on governments to identify the root causes that cause mass migration and refugee movement in the first place.