Millions of children have been driven from their homes due to violence and conflict, according to a report [press release] Wednesday by UNICEF [official website]. The report, Uprooted: The growing crisis for refugee and migrant children [report, PDF], found that nearly 50 million children have been uprooted from their homes across the globe. UNICEF detailed many of the dangers faced by these children who migrate in hopes of finding a better, safer life, including [CNW report] malnourishment and dehydration, trafficking, kidnapping, rape and murder. The report found that while children make up a third of the global population, they are over half of the refugee population. Beyond this, the number of unaccompanied children refugees continues to increase. Another concern is the finding that a refugee child is five times more likely to be out of school than a non-refugee child. UNICEF called for several actions [UN News Centre report] in order to correct these problems, including protecting children refugee from dangers such as exploitation and violence, ending the detention of children seeking refugee status, keeping families together, providing adequate education and health services to all children refugees, combating xenophobia and discrimination, and stopping conflicts that lead to child refugees.

In March Human Rights Watch filed a brief [JURIST report] in US federal court arguing that failure to appoint counsel for migrant children violated international law. In November Human Rights Watch reported that more than 400,000 Syrian refugee children living in Turkey are not receiving an education [JURIST report]. Last year UNICEF announced a new plea to raise $14 million in an effort to support the many children [JURIST report] migrating to Europe from war-torn Middle Eastern nations.