Every child has a story to tell…
There are more than 108.4 million people who are forcibly displaced in the world today. That means 1 in every 74 people has been forced to leave their homes because of persecution, conflict, violence,
human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order. and while children make up less than 30% of the global population, they constitute 40% of those who are forcibly displaced. Today, nearly 1 in 3 children living outside their countries of birth are child refugees.
Globally, barriers to migration and forcible returns continue. For example, according to an UNHCR: Violence, ill-treatment and pushbacks continue to be regularly reported at multiple entry points at land and sea borders, within and beyond the European Union (EU), despite repeated calls by UN agencies, including UNHCR, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs to end such practices
Meanwhile the number of children trying to cross into the United States is at an all time high and more than half are denied asylum or other relief.
Why are children fleeing their homes and seeking refuge elsewhere? What is it like to flee Afghanistan, be bombed in Syria, threatened with kidnap and murder in El Salvador, or flee forced prostitution in West Africa? How do they manage these journeys? What happens if you are kidnapped in Libya? How do you get in a rubber boat to cross an ocean when you have never seen the sea before? Live in a refugee camp in Northern Greece or a shelter in southern Mexico? How do you smuggle yourself across the Italian Border? How has Covid 19 affected children on the move? What do these children hope for their future?
On this website children from the Middle East, South East Asia, West Africa, East Africa, and Central America tell their stories and give you their own answers, in words and pictures. They are now living or travelling through Greece, France, Italy, the Balkans and the UK, or moving from Central America to Mexico and the United States.
