UNICEF: 50 Million Children ‘Uprooted’ Globally
MEP: 50 million children due to war and poverty are “uprooted,” through the world and forcibly displaced from their home countries, the United Nations children’s program said Wednesday.
The report, entitled Uprooted: The Growing Crisis for Refugee and Migrant Children, also says that the number of child refugees has more than doubled in the past 10 years from four million to 8.2 million.
Anthony Lake, the UNICEF’s executive director said the unforgettable images of children such as Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy of Kurdish ethnicity whose body washed up on a Turkish beach in September 2015, “have shocked the world.”
“But each picture, each girl or boy, represents many millions of children in danger — and this demands that our compassion for the individual children we see be matched with action for all children.”
According to the report, nearly 50 million children, across the globe, have migrated across or within borders, or been forcibly displaced. More than half that number – 28 million – are boys and girls who have fled violence and insecurity.
Speaking in Geneva, Ted Chaiban, UNICEF director of programmes, said: “What’s important is that these children on the move are children. And they should be treated as children.
“They deserve to be protected. They need access to services, such as education.”
The UNICEF report calling for compassion comes at a time when some European countries are displaying apathy toward the refugees arriving in Europe in large numbers.
