War Child says refugee children are being denied their basic rights

The British charity War Child last week released a report looking at how rights are being denied to child refugees.

You can read the 33-page report, I've moved, my rights haven't, here.

War Child says that 28 million children have been driven from their homes as a result of conflict, persecution and insecurity. As a result, the basic rights of millions of children are being denied, despite the fact that these rights are innate, and should stay with them even when they flee.

"For the thousands of children who flee conflict every day, they have already lost so much. It is unacceptable that they should also lose their rights. The unfolding crisis for children forced to flee demands an urgent, coordinated and global response," the report states.

War Child outlines a core set of rights that no child fleeing conflict should be denied, including as a priority:

• The right to be protected from violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect

• The right to live free from fear and discrimination

• The right to access a quality education

• The right to have one's family life upheld

• The right to be able to participate and be heard.

The report notes that responsibility for hosting the vast majority of the world's child refugees falls disproportionately on Africa and Asia, with Turkey hosting the highest number of child refugees overall.

While the vast majority of asylum applications lodged by unaccompanied or separated children were made in Europe, War Child is concerned by the number of claims being rejected.

The report says: "Despite the fact that these are among the most vulnerable children, and that even the stark increase in asylum applications represents only a tiny fraction of the number of children hosted by countries like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, their cases are still routinely rejected. For example the UK, despite receiving only 3.4% of applications [in the EU], has rejected 70% of asylum applications from children."

War Child also says that countries must commit to end the scandal of detention of displaced and refugee children, noting that the UK had incarcerated 47 children in both 2014 and 2015.

The report calls for the development of a Global Action Plan for children forced to flee to ensure that:

• No child forced to flee is out of school for more than one month - by mobilising $4bn for education in emergencies by 2020

• Child Protection funding requests in UN appeals are fully funded - with no child protection efforts failing for lack of finance.

• No child forced to flee is criminalised - by committing to eliminate child detention of displaced minors.

• There are guaranteed safe and legal routes for children forced to flee, with countries resettling a fair share of displaced children – particularly unaccompanied minors.

In concluding, the report states: "Such an action plan would help galvanise collective efforts for children forced to flee, and redouble political and financial commitment to better guarantee their rights. To avoid a lost generation of children and young people, whose lives have been torn apart by conflict, persecution and insecurity through no fault of their own, this feels like a small price to pay."