“First a migrant, then a child” A Regional Child Migrant Protection Policy Assessment in the Southern Africa Region

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the current laws and policies governing child migrant protection across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to inform Save the Children’s Regional Programme Units’ regional-level advocacy strategy for migrant and refugee children and youth. With a focus on migrant child rights and child protection in six key SADC Member states: Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe the review highlights the main policy gaps, both in formulation and implementation, preventing SADC from effectively meeting the objectives of key international and regional policy.

The report shows that that there has been substantial progress in strengthening policies on child protection across the region but increasingly restrictive country-level migration policies limit access to protection and rights for children on the move. Efforts by SADC, regionally to address both child protection in a context of migration and child migrants through a child protection lens has been hindered by significant gaps which include the failure to ensure access to documentation for children, the failure to engage with the complex realities of children, the emphasis on children in forced migration and a substantial disconnect between policy and practice. This is particularly the case where the complex realities of children on the move cannot be easily categorised through legal pathways and therefore demand more nuanced and malleable responses that can ensure children do not fall through protection gaps.

Drawing from the findings of a desk and policy review combined with a series of key informant interviews the report identifies five key cross-cutting themes (see attached report). These have been used to develop recommendations which will support the development, adaptation and implementation of an advocacy plan to address the identified gaps. These include access to birth registration and identity documents, access to public services such as education as well as protection that reflects the complex identities and realities of children on the move shaped by gender, age, religion, nationality and documentation status.

The findings will inform Save the Children’s engagement with regional stakeholders, especially regional economic communities such as SADC as well as the AU, on strengthening child protection in regional migration policy frameworks. This will be guided by an advocacy plan to address identified gaps: access to birth registration and identity documents, access to education, health and social support as well as protection from exploitation. This will be used as a basis from which to engage in continuous policy dialogue on the inclusion of protection rights for children on the move in migration policies.