The number of children displaced from their homes is the highest ever, 36.5 million children displaced in 2021, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization published.
The United Nations Children’s Organization reported that the number of children fleeing conflict and other crises was the highest recorded. The UNICEF reported that the number of children trying to escape conflict, violence and other crises was the highest recorded.
The organization said in a statement that 36.5 million children were forced to leave their homes by the end of 2021. The number includes 13.7 million refugee children and asylum seekers, and nearly 22.8 million children displaced as a result of conflict and violence.
The numbers do not include children displaced due to climatic and environmental disasters, nor do they include those displaced in 2022, or due to the war in Ukraine. The children’s organization said the record numbers were “a direct result of gradual crises – including acute and ongoing conflicts such as in Afghanistan, and fragility in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo or Yemen”.
The organization’s executive director Katherine Russell said: “I hope this alarming number will cause governments to prevent the displacement of children in the first place – and when they are displaced, ensure their access to education, protection and other critical services that support them. Welfare and development in the present and in the future. “
UNICEF said the global refugee population has more than doubled in the past decade, with children making up nearly half. More than a third of displaced children are in sub-Saharan Africa 3.9 million – 36%, a quarter of a million in Europe, in Central Asia 2.6 million – 25%. And 13% – 1.4 million in the Middle East and North Africa.
Children forced to leave their homes face serious risks to welfare and safety, UNICEF said, hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children or separated from their families are exposed to trafficking, exploitation, violence and abuse. Of human trafficking victims identified worldwide, children make up 34%.