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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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Rights of Migrant Women and Girls: 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. It analyses the gender dimension in migration, whether women or girls have migrated themselves or re
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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.
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Interaction of International Mechanisms of Migrants' Rights Protection: 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. Child migrants are doubly vulnerable as both children and as migrants, putting them at heightened ri
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Labour Rights for Migrant Workers: 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. The aim was to examine the specificities affecting children in the context of migration and inform m
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Detained Youth: The fate of young migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees in Libya today
This study provides information on the current and ongoing detention of young migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees in Libya. Through in-depth interviews with former detainees, serious violations are revealed to have occurred in Libya’s immigration detent
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Local Co-Operation for Unaccompanied Children: A tool to assess and improve reception conditions
Save the Children Sweden together with UNHCR’s Bureau for Europe, NIDOS in the Netherlands, Coram Children’s Legal Centre in the UK, Save the Children Italy, Don Calabria Institute, the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies in Italy and the Count
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Literature Review: Jozi Lights- children on the move
This literature review is part of a greater research project on children on the move in Southern Africa, currently being finalised by Save the Children International.
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Analysis of the Situation of Children on the Move: assessing the capacity and the adequacy of the child protection system in Hungary to ensure the protection of children on the move. Mario Project Research Report
The main objective of this Mario research was to analyze good practices and gaps of the Hungarian Child Protection System (CPS) in relation to children on the move. The report is based on a desk research and qualitative methods according to “Mario Methodo
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See me, ask me, hear me: children's recommendations for recovery three months after Typhoon Haiyan
Typhoon Haiyan, known locally in the Philippines as typhoon Yolanda, was the deadliest rapid-onset disaster globally in 2013. Nearly 6 million children have been affected, 4.1 million people remain displaced and over 6,000 people lost their lives. This re
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Fatal Journeys: Tracking Lives Lost During Migration
In response to the growing numbers of migrants who die on their way to European shores, this report examines how data on migrant deaths is collected and shared in different parts of the world. The study shows that no organization at the global level is cu
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Educating Burmese Children in Thailand
Migrants from Myanmar have been present in Thailand in large numbers for many years due to the long-term conflict, poor economy and lack of educational opportunities and jobs in the country. As a result, approximately 2.5 million migrants from Myanmar liv
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The Child's Right to Quality Care: Review of the implementation of the United Nations guidelines for the alternative care of children in Western Balkan countries
This review of the Implementation of the United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children in the Western Balkan Countries provides information on the capacities and efforts of the Republic of Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina in