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Children on the move
As of January 2016, an estimated 30 million children are on the move, both within and between countries, with or without their parents. They are part of large-scale population movements currently taking place in many parts of the world.
Children on the move are those children moving for a variety of reasons, voluntary or involuntary within or between countries, with or without their parents or other primary caregivers, and whose movement might place them at risk (or at an increased risk) of inadequate care, economic or sexual exploitation, abuse, neglect or violence.
Children on the move is an umbrella term that brings together a series of categories of children to highlight their common protection needs, including, children who have been trafficked, children who migrate (e.g. to pursue better life opportunities, to look for work or education or to escape exploitative or abusive situations at home, or because of other protection needs), children displaced by conflict and natural disasters and children who live and work in the streets.
Movement can help children and their families improve their living standards and life opportunities. However, children do not always benefit from such potentials. Child protection policies and interventions should refocus to place the protection of the child at the centre as well as the need to support the positive aspects of mobility.
Save the Children’s goal is that all children, including those on the move and in emergencies, have appropriate care either from their own families or community-based alternatives.
Photo: Pedro Armestre/Save the Children
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In Search of a Better Future: Experiences of unaccompanied migrant children in Limpopo & Mpumalanga in South Africa
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child provide for the protection of children who are deprived of family or parental care and make it clear that such children should have acc
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Children on the Move: El Salvador
Save the Children works with children, adolescents, parents, teachers, leaders, and local authorities to build capacity, create local networks and promote laws for violence prevention. Save the Children also partners with the State and Civil Society Organ
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European Refugee Crisis, Response Dashboard, 29th January 2016
Save the Children’s European Refugee Crisis Response Dashboard provides the latest information on the European Refugee Crisis in Europe. This short report provides key figures and information on the current state of the crisis in Europe, as of the 29 th o
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Barns egna asylskäl: Om rätten att bli sedd som individ
Children have rights, the same as adults, yet they also have particular rights as children. This also applies to asylum-seeking children. These children can have the same reasons for seeking asylum as an adult, but also for reasons relevant to being a chi
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Broken Dreams: Central American children's dangerous journey to the United States
Broken Dreams: Central American children's dangerous journey to the United States shares the obstacles and dangers that children and adolescents face as they journey to the United States. UNICEF reports that in the first six months of 2016, almost 26,000
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Children on the Move: Guatemala
Save the Children works with returned children and adolescents in vulnerable situations. Save the Children also collaborate with leaders, families and teachers from communities with the largest number of emigrating minors. Save the Children focuses on pro
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Children on the Move: Mexico
Save the Children’s response in Mexico emphasizes the creation and promotion of alternatives that prevent migration of unaccompanied children and adolescents in Mexico and the Northern Triangle of Central America. Save the Children also articulates action
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Save the Children's Rescue at Sea
In September 2016, Save the Children launched the Mediterranean rescue operation Rescue at Sea. During its three months of operation, Save the Children’s search and rescue team, aboard the organisation’s rescue ship Vos Hestia, rescued over 2,700 lives, i
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Save the Children Sweden's Summer Meeting 2016
August 12-14, 2016, Save the Children Sweden set up a meeting place for unaccompanied minors in the Stockholm region. For three days, they attended workshops and discussion groups where the participants shared their stories about coming to Sweden and also
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This is Who We Are: A study of the profile, experiences and reasons for flight of unaccompanied and separated children from Afghanistan seeking asylum in Sweden in 2015
Written in collaboration with the Swedish Migration Agency, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) profiled over 240 unaccompanied and separated children, focusing on Afghan children, arriving in Sweden in order to begin addressing the information
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Children on the Move in Europe: Save the Children's response to the deepening refugee and migrant crisis in Europe
This website provides regularly updated information on Save the Children’s response to the child refugee and migrant crisis in Europe. Find out where and how Save the Children is working to protect children as they move through Europe and as they live in
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Uprooted: The growing crisis for refugee and migrant children
Produced by Unicef, this comprehensive report presents a global data set on migrating and displaced children in today’s world: where they are born, where they move, and some of the dangers they face along the way. Children on the move are at risk of some