More than half of the world's refugees are children and adolescents and in some refugee situations, they constitute as much as 65 per cent of the displaced population. The Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes that all minors are entitled to "special care and assistance." The needs and capabilities of minors, however, are not all the same nor do all refugee children and adolescents find themselves in identical circumstances.
Infants and children are often the hardest hit during refugee emergencies. At this age, young people are particularly vulnerable, especially when, as is usually the case, they come from countries where dietary standards are poor, primary health care services have collapsed and immunization programs have been disrupted.
Because they have not yet acquired the necessary immunities, refugee children are highly susceptible to disease and illness. Diarrhea caused by polluted water and the contamination of food and hands is a leading cause of infant death in most poorer countries and can be particularly prevalent in a crowded and hastily established refugee settlement.
Malnutrition represents another major threat to the lives of young refugee children. Infants in less developed countries have a particular need for their mother's milk, with its high nutritional content and antibodies, as well as specially prepared foods. In a refugee emergency, adult family members may not have the time or resources to prepare appropriate or sufficient food for the infants in their care.
Needless separations
Refugee children who have been separated from their parents and family require particular help and care. Such separations occur in many ways. When a refugee movement is triggered by an unexpected event, there may simply be no time or opportunity for a family to flee together. While traveling in a frightened crowd, even children who are in the physical grasp of a parent can easily become detached and lost.
In other situations, parents may be so desperate to get their children to safety that they entrust them to others, even strangers, who subsequently cannot be traced. Once children have been separated from their family members, reuniting them can take months or even years of effort by the refugees themselves and by humanitarian agencies-a daunting task given that unaccompanied children usually make up between two and five percent of a refugee population during an emergency.
At the same time, well-meaning efforts to assist refugee children can easily have the effect of creating needless separations. In some situations, such as the former Yugoslavia, refugee children have been evacuated to third countries before a proper effort has been made to find their parents or family members. In others, such as Central Africa, the construction of orphanages has discouraged families and communities from looking after separated children and has even prompted hard-pressed parents to abandon their sons and daughters.
A family is critical to children because they are dependent upon others for physical survival. In the difficult circumstances that refugees typically encounter, it is the parents' determination to ensure that their children will survive and thrive that can make a life or death difference. While it is true that in less developed countries unaccompanied children are commonly taken into another family, temporary care by strangers and distant relatives is not a substitute for the greater commitment that parents can provide.
Families play a particularly important role in meeting the emotional and developmental needs of young people. Experience demonstrates, for example, that the impact of a traumatic event on a young child is shaped more by the degree of emotional comfort and security provided by the family than the objective seriousness of the tragedy itself.
It is for this reason that UNHCR's guidelines on refugee children emphasize that "one of the best ways to help refugee children is to help their families, and one of the best ways to help their families is to help their community." Like the rest of the guidelines, this principle is derived directly from the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which UNHCR applies to all of its work with younger refugees.
During the transition from childhood to adulthood, teenagers become physically capable of engaging in adult activities, even if they do not possess a comparable degree of emotional or intellectual maturity. While family and community members usually help adolescents to navigate this difficult passage, such guidance and support may not be available during a war or refugee crisis.
Adolescents are better able than children to understand the circumstances which have forced them into exile. As a result, their levels of fear and anxiety can be correspondingly greater. Because they are on the verge of adulthood, adolescents are acquiring skills and forming identities which will prepare them for the day when they leave the family home. Becoming a refugee interrupts this learning process.
Children and adolescents are entitled to "special care and assistance" not simply because their needs are different from (and often greater than) those of adults, but also because of their dependence upon the protection, instruction and support provided by older people. Every part of a young person's world is a classroom and every adult a teacher.
From The State of The World's Refugees 1995: In Search of Solutions, by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Copyright 1995 by UNHCR. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.
