Move FM Global News

NEW YORK, New York – Nineteen million children were displaced in their own countries last year due to conflicts and violence.

It was the highest number of child displacements ever.

The UN says it has heightened concern over the state of the children, due to the vulnerability they face with the global spread of COVID-19.

According to a report by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) published on Tuesday, there were 12 million new displacements of children in 2019: around 3.8 million of them caused by conflict and violence, and 8.2 million, due to disasters linked mostly to weather-related events.

Coronavirus intensifying suffering

The COVID-19 pandemic is only making a critical situation worse, UNICEF says in its report titled “Lost at Home.” Camps or informal settlements are often overcrowded, and lack adequate hygiene and health services. Physical distancing is often not possible, creating conditions that are highly conducive to the spread of disease,. the report says

“When new crises emerge, like the COVID-19 pandemic, these children are especially vulnerable,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said Tuesday. “It is essential that Governments and humanitarian partners work together to keep them safe, healthy, learning and protected.”

“When new crises emerge, like the COVID-19 pandemic, these children are especially vulnerable.”

The report looks at the risks internally displaced children face: child labour, child marriage, trafficking among them, and the actions urgently needed to protect them. It calls for strategic investments and a united effort by Governments, civil society, companies, humanitarian actors and children themselves to address the child-specific drivers of displacement, in particular, violence, exploitation and abuse.

Government investment key

The UN agency’s report also calls on Governments convening under the High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement, established by Secretary-General Antnio Guterres, to invest in actions that will provide protection and equitable access to services for all internally displaced children and their families.

Better, timely and accessible data — disaggregated by age and gender — is also critical to delivering on this agenda, the report says. “Internally displaced children and youth themselves must have a seat at the table,” it emphasized.

For millions living in internal displacement, crowded living quarters, limited to no access to clean water and sanitation, and severely curtailed health care are common. Those in hard-to-reach places may also be cut off from mass communications, meaning they are likely to miss out on lifesaving public health messages. These factors set the course for the rapid spread of COVID-19. Urgent efforts are needed to address the poor living, WASH, and health care conditions of internally displaced persons to prevent further damage to these already fragile communities and their vulnerable children.