In statement to Human Rights Council: Jusoor International calls for protection of migrant children in Europe and UK

The Jusoor International Center for Media and Development revealed the challenges of the international community in implementing refugee protection agreements, calling for strengthening international protection for refugees and migrants in the country of asylum.

This came in a statement submitted by the Center, in cooperation with the Arab-European Forum for Dialogue and Human Rights, to the Human Rights Council during its 54th session under Item Four. The two organizations pointed out that despite the great efforts made by the United Nations, represented by its competent official bodies and institutions, the policies followed by countries do not provide adequate protection for refugees and migrants, and the relevant government directions are unable to fulfill the minimum international obligations.

The joint statement said that international statistics indicate that the number of child refugees around the world has risen to about 36.5 million by the end of 2021. They live in difficult conditions, suffer deprivation, and are exposed to the most horrific violations and inhumane crimes. The statement criticized in particular the international community’s neglect of this issue and its decline on the agenda of the Human Rights Council.

The two organizations stressed the importance of the Council seeking to activate its role in eliminating all forms of suffering that these children experience and providing them with the necessary protection and immunity during their asylum, as they represent half of registered refugees in the world.

The head of the Jusoor International Center for Media and Development, Mohammed Al-Hammadi, said that the Center aims to shed light on the increasing dangers experienced by refugees and migrants, noting that the violations to which refugees, migrants and their families are exposed are increasing after their numbers increase due to the spread of wars and armed conflicts. Hammadi pointed out in particular the increased suffering of children due to asylum and deprivation of the family care they need. He highlighted the importance of the role played by NGOs in highlighting these issues in various international forums.

Hammadi pointed out that the statement stressed the need to direct the Council’s attention to this issue, with the aim of ensuring the right of refugee children to live in security and dignity like the rest of the world’s children, to enjoy their full human rights in a fair and equal way without discrimination, to ensure that they live in peace away from any practices that detract from their rights and freedoms guaranteed by international legislation, to protect them from all violations and inhumane crimes that they are exposed to by international crime gangs and human trafficking, and to strengthen international mechanisms to end the miserable conditions experienced by refugee children in many European countries and the United Kingdom.

The statement also called for the importance of dealing with data and reports that talk about the miserable reality experienced by refugee children in the United Kingdom, the loss of hundreds of refugee children from their special care homes, and documenting cases of dropouts and disappearances in the UK and Europe.

The statement revealed that more than 10,000 refugee children went missing from security and social centers or were kidnapped by international crime gangs, while more than 400 unaccompanied children went missing from centers run by the Ministry of the Interior in the UK due to human trafficking gangs.

The statement criticized the Swedish government's discriminatory and coercive practices carried out by social affairs agencies, which seize migrant children from their families, especially Arabs and Muslims, in a forced and illegal manner, and place them in care and shelter centers with arbitrary and unjust administrative decisions.

The two organizations recommended that the Human Rights Council should devote a session to discuss the situation of refugee children in Europe and the UK, take the measures and decisions to provide the necessary protection for refugee children in countries of asylum, and assign the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to investigate the situation of these children in light of documented information regarding their disappearance from designated care centers, establishing the mechanisms to protect the refugee children taken by the social affairs departments of European countries, and ensuring the commitment of states to protect the family’s right to custody and to raise their children, including respecting and protecting the social and cultural rights of refugee children.