Every child has a story to tell…
There are more than 117 million people who are forcibly displaced in the world today. That means 1 in every 69 people has been forced to leave their homes because of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, or events seriously disturbing public order. 47 million are children, more than 40 per cent of the world’s refugees.
Globally, barriers to migration and forcible returns continue, as do illegal pushbacks and the inumane treatment of those trying to seek refuge across borders. A report released by the Danish Refugee Council found that “pushbacks have become a common practice along EU borders.” “Pushbacks are an illegal practice where refugees are ‘pushed’, or forced, back across a border they have crossed. It is a dangerous and unfortunately growing trend. Countries are using violent and inhumane methods to send vulnerable people back across the border they have attempted to cross.”
According to Save the Children, in 2023 20% of of those who arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean sea were children, some of whom had been travelling for almost a decade to reach safety. It is estimated that 11 children died each week trying to cross the Central Mediterranean route. Overall the number of children losing their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean has risen to 4% of all deaths, up from less than 1% in 2014
Meanwhile increasing numbers of children are on the move in Latin America. One in four people on the move in Latin America and the Caribbean is a child, setting a new record amid violence, instability and climate change.
Why are children fleeing their homes and seeking refuge elsewhere? What is it like to flee Afghanistan, be bombed in Syria, threatened with kidnap and murder in El Salvador, or flee forced prostitution in West Africa? How do they manage these journeys? What happens if you are kidnapped in Libya? How do you get in a rubber boat to cross an ocean when you have never seen the sea before? Live in a refugee camp in Northern Greece or a shelter in southern Mexico? How do you smuggle yourself across the Italian Border? How has Covid 19 affected children on the move? What do these children hope for their future?
On this website children from the Middle East, South East Asia, West Africa, East Africa, and Central America tell their stories and give you their own answers, in words and pictures. They are now living or travelling through Greece, France, Italy, the Balkans and the UK, or moving from Central America to Mexico and the United States.
