UNITED NATIONS, May 05 (APP): An estimated 19 million children more than ever before were living in displacement within their own countries due to conflict and violence in 2019 some of them for years, UNICEF said in a new report.
The report, ‘Lost at Home’, looks at the risks and challenges internally displaced children face, and the urgent actions needed to protect them. As coronavirus continues to spread around the world, these children are among the most vulnerable to its direct and indirect impacts, the UN children agency said.
“Millions of displaced children around the world are already going without proper care and protection,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement. “When new crises emerge, like the COVID-19 pandemic, these children are especially vulnerable. It is essential that governments and humanitarian partners work together to keep them safe, healthy, learning and protected.”
The report looks at the risks internally displaced children face child labour, child marriage, trafficking among them and the actions urgently needed to protect them. It calls for strategic investments and a united effort by Governments, civil society, companies, humanitarian actors and children themselves to address the child-specific drivers of displacement, in particular, violence, exploitation and abuse.
It also calls on Governments convening under the High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement, established by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to invest in actions that will provide protection and equitable access to services for all internally displaced children and their families.
Better, timely and accessible data disaggregated by age and gender is also critical to delivering on this agenda, the report says.
“Internally displaced children and youth themselves must have a seat at the table,” it emphasizes, and offered the opportunity to be part of the solution.
