LIFE AS A REFUGEE

www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.9199179/

A Day in the Life of Joseph in Boroli Refugee

Camp, Uganda

DONATE NOW
Joseph*, a 7-year-old South Sudanese refugee, now lives with his mother and two siblings
in Boroli Refugee Camp, Uganda. He is one of over 400,000 refugees who have fled South
Sudan, seeking refuge from the brutal conflict that has engulfed the world's youngest
nation. Over 120,000 of these are currently residing in settlement camps, like Boroli, in
neighbouring Uganda. New arrivals continue to cross the border daily, often arriving
exhausted, nutritionally weak and in poor health.

Joseph attends one of Save the Children's child friendly spaces, which provides a safe
environment for children to play and learn in the camp. He described his daily routine in
the camp to a member of staff from Save the Children.

“It was very bad in South Sudan. We had to run because there was lots of fighting and
people were being killed. I was very scared. Here it is a lot better. There is no fighting here.
It is cold in the morning when we wake up, colder than it is back in South Sudan.
Sometimes I don't want to get out of bed. I have to do my chores before I can go and play
with my friends. First I have to dig our land so that our crops will grow. In a few months we
will have our own food to eat and sell. Once I have finished digging I go and fetch water so
that I can wash myself. The water is heavy but I am strong. Sometimes I practice the
alphabet or my drawing outside. I use the straw from our house's roof because I don't have
paper or pens. I go to the Child Friendly Space everyday and it's lots of fun. We play
games and swing on the swings. I like it here a lot but I want to go back to my old village in
South Sudan. I love my old village.”

Currently over 350 South Sudanese children attend Save the Children's Child Friendly
Space in Boroli Camp, Uganda, where they are able to play, learn and receive the support
they need to move on with their lives.This is one of five child friendly spaces run by Save
the Children in refugee camps in Adjumani district in Northern Uganda.

It is estimated that, if the current trend continues, as many as 300,000 South Sudanese
refugees could be sheltering in Uganda by the end of the year. Over 65% of the new
arrivals are children and hundreds are arriving unaccompanied after being separated from
their parents or caregivers during the fighting. In response Save the Children is helping to
register separated and unaccompanied children and then reunify them with their family
members. The child friendly spaces include Early Childhood Care and Development
Centres within them, to provide refugee children in Uganda with a safe and nurturing
environment in which they can play, learn and receive the support they need to move on
with their lives.

* after a name indicates that the name has been changed to protect identity. This must be
reflected in all usage.

https://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/20/europe/child-refugees-greece/index.html

Refugee life, as seen by children fleeing war

By Atika Shubert, Bharati Naik and Bryony Jones, CNN

Updated 1436 GMT (2236 HKT) June 20, 2016

Facebook
Twitter
Share

Diavata Refugee Camp, Greece (CNN)Imagine watching as violence and

bloodshed took over your country, leaving you with little option but to flee.

Imagine risking your life, traveling hundreds of miles, and throwing yourself on
the mercy of strangers in a foreign land.
Now imagine doing all that as a child, with no parents, no family to support you
on the perilous journey.
Dozens of teenagers in Greece's Diavata refugee camp don't need to use their
imagination -- this is the life they've been living for weeks, months, even years.

<img alt="Life in a refugee camp" class="media__image"

src="//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160620043107-greece-syrian-family-refugees-life-in-
camp-pkg-large-169.jpg">

JUST WATCHED

Life in a refugee camp

Replay
MUST WATCH

PlayPauseMuteUnmuteTHEOplayer v1.6.140Life in a refugee camp 02:50

Ashraf Khalil Alhatem, 17, and his 15-year-old brother Hatem left their home in
Deir Ezzor, Syria, at the urging of their parents, who stayed behind with the rest of
the family.
"They were worried about the military bombing everything, and we weren't able
to continue our studies or live with any kind of safety," he explains.
inReadAshraf
says it took the pair two attempts just to cross into Turkey: "The
Turkish army blocked us so we returned, but we tried again and thank God we got
through."
The migrant crisis: In-depth coverage
Perilous journey by sea
After more than three weeks in Turkey, the brothers got onto a boat heading for
Greece — but their journey was far from straightforward.
"In the sea we stayed in the Straits of Turkey for three days, without food or any
water at all," says Ashraf.

<img alt="Future of one refugee family seeking asylum on hold" class="media__image"

src="//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160620021347-greece-refugee-struggle-asylum-
skype-shubert-pkg-00012905-large-169.jpg">

JUST WATCHED

Future of one refugee family seeking asylum on

hold
Replay
MUST WATCH

PlayPauseMuteUnmuteTHEOplayer v1.6.140Future of one refugee family seeking asylum on hold 01:58

"My brother has a problem with his heart so we were always worried about him. I
didn't know what to do — it was a very difficult situation."
And things didn't get any easier when they finally landed on Greek shores.
"I was jailed twice," says Ashraf. "And now we are living in tents. Really awful
tents. My mood is very tired, and the situation is very difficult. But hopefully
things will get better, God willing."
Ashraf and Hatem are two of the 30 or so unaccompanied minors -- all of them
boys -- living in Diavata; girls are housed in a government-run shelter.
More displaced now than after WWII: UNHCR
Sleeping on benches
In 2015, the European Union registered more than 88,000 child and teenage
refugees traveling alone.
Obada Khdier, 17, from Damascus, dreamed of studying to become a doctor, until
the Syrian civil war interrupted his studies. He says he fled his home because
"there was no way to live normally or in safety" in Syria.

<img alt="World Refugee Day: By the numbers" class="media__image"

src="//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160531132259-aymed-syrian-refugees-one-thing-irpt-
large-169.jpg">

JUST WATCHED

World Refugee Day: By the numbers

Replay
MUST WATCH

PlayPauseMuteUnmuteTHEOplayer v1.6.140World Refugee Day: By the numbers 01:21

After arriving in Turkey, he went hungry and slept on park benches for a week
before a passerby offered him a place to stay and helped him find a job.
"In Turkey the life I had only allowed me to live and eat and drink, it didn't provide
me with any sort of a future," he says, and after eight months he decided to move
on "so I could have a future and carry on with my studies."
Like many others, the Khalil Alhatem brothers and Obada crossed into Greece by
sea. Last year at least 856,000 people risked their lives to cross the Aegean on
rickety boats and inflatable dinghies.
Nothing to return to: Millions driven from Iraq
Thrown in jail
But once Obada arrived in Greece he found that his age, and the fact he had
nobody with him, meant his way on was blocked.
"I couldn't continue my travels because I was a minor — I needed to find a family
that would sponsor me."

<img alt="Falluja refugees fear for loved ones" class="media__image"

src="//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160618035234-falluja-refugees-fear-ben-wedeman-
pkg-00014103-large-169.jpg">
JUST WATCHED

Falluja refugees fear for loved ones

Replay
MUST WATCH

PlayPauseMuteUnmuteTHEOplayer v1.6.140Falluja refugees fear for loved ones 02:10

Obada found a family to travel with, but four days after arriving at a refugee
camp, they left him behind.
"I stayed in the camp for a month and half by myself, and [then] I went to the
police and said, 'I am a minor and I am by myself here.'
"The police arrested me and I stayed in jail for 15 days — the reasoning being that
I am now the responsibility of the country because I am a minor."
Eventually, Obada was helped by a social worker from Arsis, an NGO which helps
unaccompanied minor refugees.
He now plans to travel on to Germany where, he says, "hopefully I will be able to
realize my potential and fulfill my dreams."
Asia's worst refugee crisis 'could happen again'
Borders closed
Harth Mohammed, 16, ran away from his home in Mosul, Iraq, to escape ISIS. "I
was looking to continue my studies and most importantly be somewhere safe
away from war," he says. "All I want to do is be in a safe place and have peace of
mind."
Ali Misbah Noori, 14, traveled to Europe from the Afghan capital, Kabul. He says
he had no choice but to come alone because "my father had enough money to
only send me."
<img alt="Italian FM: Europe needs a refugees wake-up call" class="media__image"
src="//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160531183155-paolo-gentiloni-amanpour-large-
169.jpg">

JUST WATCHED

Italian FM: Europe needs a refugees wake-up call

Replay
MUST WATCH

PlayPauseMuteUnmuteTHEOplayer v1.6.140Italian FM: Europe needs a refugees wake-up call 06:45

"I started my journey first to Pakistan and then from there to Iran and then to
Turkey and finally I arrived in Greece — my journey in total was around 70 days.
"I am not comfortable here," he says. "I was planning to go to France, but as the
borders got closed, now I am stuck in here."
In March this year, the European Union sealed the border between Greece and
the Balkan states, and made a controversial deal with Turkey to take back
refugees, saying the region is simply overwhelmed.
That agreement has left some 57,000 people stranded in tented camps across
Greece, according to the U.N. — they can't move forward into Europe, and refuse
to return to Turkey, which is already home to close to three million refugees.
The migrant crisis: In-depth coverage
Life in limbo
Sisters Riam, nine, Lina, six, and Dima Suleiyman, five, also got stuck in Greece
when the border was closed, though they, at least, have their parents with them.
"When we arrived to the border it was our turn to go through and then the
border closed," says Ahmed (not his real name — the couple asked CNN not to
reveal their identity, fearing relatives back home may be targeted).

<img alt="Exclusive: Syrian children in dire need of medical care" class="media__image"

src="//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160527121203-alyaman-story-refugees-idomeni-
shubert-pkg-00011301-large-169.jpg">

JUST WATCHED

Exclusive: Syrian children in dire need of medical

care
Replay
MUST WATCH

PlayPauseMuteUnmuteTHEOplayer v1.6.140Exclusive: Syrian children in dire need of medical care 02:50

"In our face," adds Zinah (not her real name). "People before us can enter, but we
cannot. I was standing before the border and they said the border is closed and
now you have to back. It is very sad."
Two years after fleeing their home in Homs, the family is now living in limbo in the
Lagkadiki Refugee Camp.
With little to do and "no [real] school for the children here," Ahmed says he and
Zinah are trying to teach the girls themselves, to fill the days: "We teach them
Arabic and some English, and sometimes we draw some drawings."
Ahmed says he is trying to learn Greek, but that he knows it will be tough to find
work in the country.
"I speak English, I speak French and I am an electronic engineer, so I can help any
community, any society -- I can integrate with them, [but] I know the Greeks here
have economic crisis, so how can I have work for me when I am not Greek guy?"
Still struggling in a safe place: War's refugees
Skype calls for asylum
The family is eager to move on: "This is no life," says Ahmed. "Without work, we
spend our time sleeping and eating, sleeping and eating, it is boring."
But, Ahmed says, anything is better than life at home in Syria: "Sometimes when
we are depressed, we wish we were staying in Turkey maybe. But we can't stay in
Syria, because almost every second you may die."

<img alt="Greece clears refugees from makeshift camp" class="media__image"

src="//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160308125402-migrants-greece-large-169.jpg">
JUST WATCHED

Greece clears refugees from makeshift camp

Replay
MUST WATCH

PlayPauseMuteUnmuteTHEOplayer v1.6.140Greece clears refugees from makeshift camp 02:32

To move on, though, both families and unaccompanied minors have to apply for
asylum in Europe. To do this, each has to make a Skype call to the Greek
authorities. The line is open for just an hour a day, and thousands are trying to get
through at the same time.
The Halle family from Aleppo has been calling for more than 60 days in a row —
and they still haven't managed to speak to anyone.
"I've been calling for two months and seven days," explains father-of-two Anas
Halle, who came to Greece with his wife, sons and other relatives. "It's tough. I
just dialed again. But ... there is only that noise."
In the hour the line is open, they call the number over and over — 36 times today
— with no luck.
After escape from ISIS, Falluja's children suffer
Daydreams of the future
"Of course, it's a ploy," says Anas's wife Maryam, as their young son Lais whines in
boredom beside her. "Is it even possible that they could answer the phone calls of
so many thousands of people?"
<img alt="Afghan boy&amp;#39;s dramatic journey to Europe" class="media__image"
src="//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160419140926-afghan-refugee-journey-to-the-uk-
ctw-pkg-00004326-large-169.jpg">

JUST WATCHED

Afghan boy's dramatic journey to Europe

Replay
MUST WATCH

PlayPauseMuteUnmuteTHEOplayer v1.6.140Afghan boy's dramatic journey to Europe 03:13

The Greek government says an in-person registration service will soon be set up
in camps. Until then Skype -- and daydreams of the future -- are the only option.
"It's not good here," says Lais, aged six. "I would like some toys. And some
chocolate. Do you want to know where I want to go?" he asks. "Germany."
Ashraf Khalil Alhatem says he and his brother don't mind where they end up — as
long as they are away from the war in their homeland.
"I want the ability to continue my studies and have safety for me ... and to protect
my brother and for him to continue his studies and for me to give him medicine.
He has a problem in his heart and needs an operation.
"It doesn't matter where I go — the most important thing is that its safe."
https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2016/apr/28/the-day-the-war-came-poem-
about-unaccompanied-child-refugees

The Day the War Came – a poem about

unaccompanied child refugees
Children’s author Nicola Davies has written this poem in response to the government’s
decision not to allow lone refugee children a safe haven in the UK

 You are invited to join the #3000chairs project on Twitter: draw/paint/sketch your
empty chair and post it using #3000chairs – and share it with us here

Nicola Davies

Thu 28 Apr 2016 15.42 BST Last modified on Thu 22 Feb 2018 14.32 GMT

 Share on Facebook
 Share on Twitter
 Share via Email
 View more sharing options
 Share on LinkedIn
 Share on Pinterest
 Share on Google+
 Share on WhatsApp
 Share on Messenger
 Close

Shares

5,877
5877

A child refugee who has fled Syria at a makeshift camp along the Greek-Macedonian
border near the village of Idomeni. Photograph: Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty Images

Contribute with Guardian Witness

A few weeks ago I heard a story about a child turning up at a school near a refugee camp and
being turned away because there was no chair for her. She came back the next day with a
broken chair and asked again. I can’t remember where I heard the story but it’s melded with
all the other things I’ve heard over the last few months about refugee families and lone
children.

#3000chairs: the empty chairs of Syrian

child refugees – in pictures
View gallery

The ideas and images have been running in my blood like a fever. But this week, with the
government’s response to children utterly alone in the world (when the Conservative party
voted against the UK accepting 3000 unaccompanied child refugees from Syria) I couldn’t
ignore the story burning in my veins. All other work had to be put aside. So rough and ready
as it is, here is my response to their policy:

The Day the War Came

The day war came there were flowers on the window sill
and my father sang my baby brother back to sleep.
My mother made my breakfast, kissed my nose
and walked with me to school.

That morning I learned about volcanoes, I sang a song about how tadpoles turn at last to
frogs.
I made a picture of myself with wings.
Then, just after lunch, while I watched a cloud shaped like a dolphin, war came.
At first, just like a spattering of hail
a voice of thunder…
then all smoke and fire and noise, that I didn’t understand.

It came across the playground.

It came into my teacher’s face.
It brought the roof down.
and turned my town to rubble.

I can’t say the words that tell you

about the blackened hole that had been my home.

All I can say is this:

war took everything

war took everyone

I was ragged, bloody, all alone.

 Children shouldn’t be
Look Into the Eyes of Refugee Children
Photographer Muhammed Muheisen wants to
introduce the world to the children who grow up
fleeing war.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

 Haunting Photos Show Where Refugee Children Sleep

 What’s It Like to Have Refugees Stream Into Your Town?
 See What Life Is Like for Refugees Above the Arctic Circle

1 /13

UP NEXT

Food Scene in Manila, Philippines

12 Photos
AYA BANDAR, 6, FROM HAMA, SYRIA

“I didn't want the background and the good light and the framing to be the center of the
story,” Muheisen explains. “I wanted it to be the faces of these children. That's why I
made it really tight, so you can see the details, the conflict in their faces.”
Photograph by Muhammed Muheisen, AP
ROBINA HASEEB, 5, FROM AFGHANISTAN

For more than three decades, Pakistan has been home to hundreds of thousands of
Afghans who have fled the repeated wars and fighting in their country.

Photograph by Muhammed Muheisen, AP

RAKAN RASLAN, 11, FROM HAMA, SYRIA

“I used to go to the school back in Hama,” Raslan says. “I used to have friends there.
Our home was destroyed in the war and we had to flee to Jordan.” Rakan says that
without an education, his future is in doubt. “The best I can become is a driver.”

Photograph by Muhammed Muheisen, AP

HASANAT MOHAMMED, 5, FROM AFGHANISTAN

Pakistan hosts over 1.6 million registered Afghans, the largest and most protracted
refugee population in the world, according to the UN refugee agency, thousands of them
still live without electricity, running water and other basic services.

Photograph by Muhammed Muheisen, AP

ZAHRA MAHMOUD, 5, FROM DEIR EL-ZOUR, SYRIA

About half of the 4.8 million Syrians who fled their homeland are children. Some of the
most vulnerable refugee children live in makeshift tent camps. Several of these camps
are in Jordan, which has taken in close to 640,000 refugees.

Photograph by Muhammed Muheisen, AP

BASMINA, 3, FROM AFGHANISTAN

“[The children] are so polite, so respectful,” Muheisen says. “In spite of the difficult life
they have, they're still keeping their manners.”

Photograph by Muhammed Muheisen, AP

MAYADA HAMMID, 8, FROM HASSAKEH, SYRIA

"I remember nothing from Syria," Hammid says.

Photograph by Muhammed Muheisen, AP

MADINA JUMA'A, 4, FROM AFGHANISTAN

“You can see the trauma in their faces,” Muheisin says. “You can feel the war in their
body language.”

Photograph by Muhammed Muheisen, AP

MOHAMMED BANDAR, 12, FROM HAMA, SYRIA

"I want to become a doctor to be able to help people," Bandar says.

Photograph by Muhammed Muheisen, AP

GULLAKHTA NAWAB, 6, FROM AFGHANISTAN

“They have to adapt, because you never know how long this is going to take,” Muheisin
says. “And they are aware, but they are not hopeless. A child never loses hope, you
know? In a way they have some kind of backup way of thinking. ‘Okay, we can adapt
here, we need schools, we build friends, we make a childhood.’”

Photograph by Muhammed Muheisen, AP

HAYAT KHAN, 8, FROM AFGHANISTAN

“The older children say, ‘We would love to go to school,'" Muheisin says. "When we were
kids, the last thing we wanted was to go to school! But for these children, it’s a luxury to
have a school.”

Photograph by Muhammed Muheisen, AP

AMNA ZUGHAYAR, 9, FROM DEIR EL-ZOUR, SYRIA

“I spoke to some of these kids,” Muheisin says, “and they said, ‘Yeah, our home was
bombed, my school was bombed, I miss my friends, when are we going back to Syria?’”

Photograph by Muhammed Muheisen, AP

By Melody Rowell
Photographs by Muhammed Muheisen, AP
PUBLISHED JUNE 20, 2016

This story was updated on June 20 to reflect new information from the
United Nations.
The number of people forcibly displaced from their homes is now roughly equivalent to the
population of France or the United Kingdom, according to a new report released by the United
Nations on Monday.

According to the UN, as of the end of 2015, 65.3 million people worldwide have been displaced,
marking the first time in history that population has exceeded 60 million. Nearly 41 million of
those counted are displaced within their own countries.

The report cites three causes for this increase, up from 59.5 million at the end of 2014. First,
conflicts are lasting longer than ever before. Second, new conflicts are occurring more frequently.
And third, they write, “The rate at which solutions are being found for refugees and internally
displaced people has been on a falling trend since the end of the Cold War.” Simply put, there
are more problems than there are immediate solutions.

The majority of the displaced—51 percent—are children, according to the report. Photographer
Muhammed Muheisen has spent time with some of the 2.4 million refugee children who come
from Syria, including five-year-old Zahra, pictured in the gallery above.

Zahra doesn’t talk much, but when she does, the only things she says are about war, turmoil,
upheaval, and whether or not she’ll ever get to return to her home.
Muheisen, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Associated Press chief photographer for the
Middle East, has been photographing refugees in the Middle East for the past few years,
concentrating on the children affected. “I believe they are the real victims of the conflict,” he says.
“I like to introduce the public to the names of the people that I photograph because it brings them
closer. It's more than just numbers and refugees and Syria and Afghanistan. The people start to
be remembered by their names.”

Muheisen used to live in Pakistan, where he regularly photographed Afghan refugees. Last fall,
he moved to Amman, Jordan, and he has gotten to know the Syrian children who live in nearby
refugee camps.

“They're children in age, but they're not, in a way. They're grown up," Muheisen says. “I looked at
a five-year-old girl's face,” he says, “and I touched my face—and my face was softer than hers,
for God's sake. So that's why I came close with my camera, to show all these details in their
faces.”

During the day, the children’s parents and older siblings work at nearby farms. Sometimes the
younger children go along, other times, they fend for themselves. They have no schools, toys,
radios, or TVs. But Muheisen says the children are friendly and get along with each other. “I
believe that the hard life they have, it makes them closer to each other,” he says.

The following 12 portraits of refugee children were taken in Jordan in mid-March 2016, and in
Pakistan in late 2013 and early 2014. You will be compelled to make eye contact with them, and
it’s hard not to feel unsettled—the intense gazes are so unrelentingly personal. “Each of them
has a beauty of their own,” Muheisen says. “The eyes of children are innocent. They can't hide,
they can't lie, they can't fake. They just stand in front of the camera like adults, and they look
straight into your lens, and if you're lucky enough to have time before they run away, you capture
the moment.”

https://news.nationalg
eographic.com/2016/0
3/160318-syria-
refugee-children-
portraits/victims: The
hard life
https://adra.org/childr
en-shouldnt-be-
victims-the-hard-life-
of-a-child-refugee/of a
child refugee
When we ask refugees why they fled their country, the majority of
people tell us that they left because they feared for the safety of their
children. We heard harrowing stories of forced marriages, abductions,
near-misses with snipers’ bullets, and spoke to a mother who lost twin
one-year-olds in a bombing. Another mother asked her husband to
leave before the rest of the family with their 6-year-old son, because
she was so afraid for his safety. They’ve now been separated for 10
months. When they talk on the phone she says her son is always
crying and asking when she is coming to join them.
We met an Afghani family who have moved several times in search of
safety. In Afghanistan, the father was arrested and whipped by the
Taliban. They moved to Pakistan, where they thought it would be
safer. For a while, it was. But one day the three girls were traveling
home from school, and a bomb went off in the city. Their mother kept
them from school because she was afraid for them. Two weeks later
her worst fears were realized when the girls’ school was bombed. It
was then that they decided they had to try and leave.

In every camp we visited in Greece, smiling children welcomed us

with hugs and kisses. They wanted to play, show us their toys or be
picked up. As we were leaving one camp a girl chased after me to
present me with a flower. Many of them are young, and don’t fully
grasp the situation they’re in. But their parents do.

We spoke to many grim-faced parents who told us of their distress in

not being able to properly care for their children, particularly when
they’re sick.
“My child is sick and I don’t know how to get him medicine,” one man
told us, while his young son wailed in misery. We also met Sana, a 7-
year-old Yazidi girl who never stops smiling. You wouldn’t know that
two weeks earlier she was badly burned when a pot of tea tipped over,
and that she still has a nasty wound requiring treatment.
Pregnant women are also faced with the daunting task of caring for
newborn babies in the camps. Hospitals will admit refugee women to
have their babies, but if mother and child are healthy, they are quickly
discharged and must return to the camp.

“I don’t want my baby to be born in the camp,” a 21-year-old Afghani

woman tells us, explaining that the thought of bringing a newborn
baby into this situation weighs heavily on her.
A refugee camp is no place for a child to grow up. In addition to
inadequate food, shelter and medical services, there are few organized
activities, and parents worry about a lost generation of children
unable to get a proper education. A 16-year-old girl tells us that she’d
like to be a doctor when she’s older. In Afghanistan, her brother and
sister got sick with a fever and died, and she would like to be a doctor
so she can save children like them.

Some refugees are trying to fill this education gap themselves. We met
Sonia, who fled Afghanistan with her husband and 8-month-old son
and is now living in a refugee camp in Greece. Sonia started a school in
the camp to teach English to children and interested women. She has
around 50 students, and is assisted by a 17-year-old girl who teaches
the children some math.

In Lebanon, ADRA’s LEARN program allows Syrian refugee children to

resume their education and integrate into the local school system. It
also offers psychosocial activities to children suffering from trauma,
and hosts events to bring together host and refugee communities.
But the children we’ve told you about so far are in many ways the
lucky ones, the ones who still have someone to care for them.

In 2015, over 95,000 unaccompanied children applied for asylum in

Europe. According to UNICEF, more than 9 out of 10 refugee and
migrant children arriving in Europe this year through Italy are
unaccompanied, with over 7000 making the crossing from North
Africa in the first five months of 2016.

Of even greater concern, at least 10,000 of these unaccompanied child

refugees have disappeared since arriving in Europe, according to the
EU’s criminal intelligence agency. It is thought that some of these may
have been reunited with relatives and the system has simply lost track
of them, but there are grave fears that many have fallen into the hands
of traffickers and are being criminally exploited.
We’ll leave you with the words of Said, a 14-year-old refugee from
Syria.
“Children shouldn’t be victims. Children shouldn’t watch how people
drown as they couldn’t get in the boat. They shouldn’t walk for days,
not being showered. They shouldn’t be hungry and wear just one pair
of shoes and one garment all the time. I dream of my house where I
can sleep in my bed and attend school.”

TAGS:
 Blog
 child refugee
 Children
 refugee crisis
 refugees