Children on the Move

According to GWG COM, "children on the move is an umbrella definition for persons under the age of 18 who have left their place of habitual residence and are either on the way towards a new destination, or have already reached such destination."

Strategies for ways forward from the conference conclusion include:

1. Prevention: the root causes of child migration must be addressed:

• Provide them with meaningful opportunities for education and youth employment, as well asprotection from harm in their home communities.
• Work with community and religious leaders in countries of origin, transit, and destination to promote a culture of acceptance of children’s mobility and their entitlement to care and protection.

2. Ensure that immigrant children’s rights are protected and respected throughout the migration process (pre-mobility, mobility, and post mobility):

• Adopt and implement legislation and policies that promote and protect the rights of children on the move.
• Offer all children the same rights and access to services.

3. Strengthen and expand child protection:

• Harmonise child protection policies and services.
• Create and support peer support networks and children’s associations.

4. Enable children’s participation to influence policies and strategies:

• Consider children’s views, experiences, and recommendations.

5. Enhance and expand lines of research:

• Monitor the lives of child migrants, explore risk and vulnerability factors in the different contexts and phases of the mobility processes, analyse the environment in which the migration process occurs, and document good practices and lessons learnt in terms of policy formulation.

6. Promote joint and coordinated action from all actors:

• Generate a common vision to form the basis for the dialogue between actors, cooperation (north-south and south-south), and the creation of common databases
• Identify opportunities to improve protection during the different stages of the process.

Children, Youth, Rights, Population

From the website: "An estimated 214 million persons worldwide are international migrants, along with an estimated 740 million internal migrants. Youth make up a disproportionate share of migrants from developing countries; about one third is between 12 and 25 years old. This includes millions of children under the age of 18. In the coming years an unprecedented number of young people are expected to follow this massive exodus and shift population dynamics further, driven by:

• demographic factors
• economic disparity
• violent conflict, state failure
• natural disasters
• resource and environmental pressures, especially climate change.
• and in search of access education or employment, a driver of migration that is likely to become stronger in the coming years

There are a myriad of reasons why children move. For many, leaving their home communities promises the chance of a better life. Among other things, they may be running away from:

• violence and abuse in the home or at school
• the announcement of an arranged marriage
• cultural practices

However, once children move against their will, and /or in absence of protection services and actors, they become highly vulnerable to worst forms of child labour, exploitation and other abuses, either during their trip or once they reach the new destination."