Migrants Stranded in Distress: A child rights perspective

This paper is part of a series of bridging papers looking at different points of the 5-year Action Plan for Collaboration from a child rights perspective. Stranded migrants can come from any country and be stranded at any point of the migratory movement. Existing statistics, despite providing a fragmented and incomplete picture of the situation, are showing a significant increase in the number of children stranded in transit, at borders or in detention. This lack of accurate, aggregated data shows a disinterest or lack of a child rights approach in migration policies. Moreover, children are even more vulnerable than their adult counterparts and their vulnerability is often less visible. This paper identifies the key issues and concerns for child migrants.