Protecting Refugee Children

Research
Uganda
Afghanistan
Somalia
Bangladesh
India
Pakistan

Uzbekistan
Senegal
Honduras
Nicaragua
Haiti
Madagascar

Sri Lanka
Lao
Vietnam
Ethiopia
Sudan
Niger

Malawi
Mozambique
Zimbabwe
Cameroon
Congo
Nigeria

The UN refugee agency works to protect children of concern in partnership with

children themselves, their communities, national authorities and relevant local and
international groups, including the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and non-governmental
organizations. This includes, for example, conducting best interest assessments for
vulnerable children, ensuring that unaccompanied or separated children have access to
family tracing and reunification services, and engaging children through activities and
education that build their skills and capacities.
Children are vulnerable. They are susceptible to disease, malnutrition and physical
injury. Children are dependent. They need the support of adults, not only for physical
survival, particularly in the early years of childhood, but also for their psychological and
social wellbeing. Children are developing. They grow in developmental sequences, like
a tower of bricks, each layer depending on the one below it. Serious delays interrupting
these sequences can severely disrupt development. Refugee children face far greater
dangers to their safety and well-being than the average child. The sudden and violent
onset of emergencies, the disruption of families and community structures as well as
the acute shortage of resources with which most refugees are confronted, deeply affect
the physical and psychological well-being of refugee children. It is a sad fact that
infants and young children are often the earliest and most frequent victims of violence,
disease and malnutrition which accompany population displacements and refugee
outflows. In the aftermath of emergencies and in the search for solutions, the
separation of families and familiar structures continue to affect adversely refugee
children of all ages. Thus, helping refugee children to meet their physical and social
needs often means providing support to their families and communities.
Refugee children face far greater dangers to their safety and well being than the
average child. The sudden and violent onset of emergencies, the disruption of families
and community structures as well as the acute shortage of resources with which most
refugees are confronted, deeply affect the physical and psychological well being of
refugee children. It is a sad fact that infants and young children are often the earliest
and most frequent victims of violence, disease and malnutrition which accompany
population displacement and refugee outflows. In the aftermath of emergencies and in
the search for solutions, the separation of families and familiar structures continue to
affect adversely refugee children of all ages. Thus, helping refugee children to meet
their physical and social needs often means providing support to their families and
communities.
The exception to this general rule is that States may not return a refugee, in any
manner whatsoever, to the frontiers of territories where his/her life or freedom would
be threatened because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular
social group or political opinion (the principle of nonrefoulement). This is true even if
the refugee entered the host country illegally. A refugee who poses a danger to the
security of the country or to the community, cannot claim this protection.
To protect refugees, a State must know who they are. A State must be able to
differentiate those in need of international protection from other people seeking entry
to its territory. How a State does so will largely depend on whether a claim for asylum
can be examined individually or whether people are arriving in such
large numbers that a group determination is the most practical.
In addition to the Refugee Conventions provision against refoulement, human rights
law sets out the obligation not to return someone to danger, though in somewhat
different language. The Convention against Torture, which has 131 States parties as of
September 2001, prohibits expulsion or return to a place
where there is a substantial danger of torture.

Some countries have established procedures to examine a claim under the criteria of
both the Refugee Convention and the Convention against Torture at the same time.
This can be more efficient, as long as it is done in the context of a full and inclusive
application of the Refugee Convention. One concern is that people who receive the
benefit of non-refoulement under the Convention against Torture often fail to receive
the rights and benefits accorded to refugees, since such rights are not set forth in the
Convention against Torture. Therefore, if these persons meet the refugee criteria, they
should be recognized under the Refugee Convention.
Temporary protection should not continue for too long, even if the underlying
circumstances have not improved, because people should not be left under minimum
conditions of protection indefinitely. States should either employ their usual asylum
procedures, or regularize the beneficiaries residence. UNHCR can offer advice on such
issues as when to institute temporary protection, what treatment should be accorded
beneficiaries, and when and how such protection should be ended.
<REFUGEES AND HIV-AIDS
q Provide information and skills training to refugees to help them protect themselves
from HIV infection
q Ensure that people have the means to protect themselves from HIV, including access
to condoms
q Provide gloves and other supplies to enforce universal precautions to avoid the
transmission of HIV
q Ensure a safe blood supply by screening all donated blood for HIV q Gather
information regarding the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and programme interventions in
regions of origin and in the host country
In general, UNHCR is reluctant to promote the adoption of separated children out of the
region of their origin, since ultimately it is often possible to trace family members of
these children.
>Children with their parents
Children and their primary caregivers should not be detained unless this is the only
means of maintaining family unity.
>If children are detained
It must be as a measure of last resort and for the shortest possible period of time.
Children must not be held in prison-like conditions, and must be able to play and to
have education
SEPARATED CHILDREN
UNHCR works closely with other agencies to ensure that separated children are
identified and registered, and their families traced. In the Rwanda/Burundi crisis area,
for example, UNHCR has been working with UNICEF, ICRC, Food for the Hungry and
Save the Children (UK), as well as many other NGOs, to do cross-border tracing for
these children. A regional, centralized database has been established, to register, track
and match separated family members; and local databases support local and countrybased programs. In the first year following the Rwandan exodus, more than 21,000
separated children returned to their families throughout the Great Lakes region.