6 minute read
Teddy bear in the Migration Path
About women and children - Out of the borders
Looking at immigration through the eyes of the children
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by Muhammet Şahin Akkaya
According to the data of international organizations, one out of every eight immigrants is a child. Migrant children therefore represent a significant percentage of all refugees and migrants worldwide.
The 161,000 children who applied for asylum in the European Union in 2017 accounted for onethird of the total asylum applications made that year. Approximately 25,600 of these children are unaccompanied during migration. Millions of migrant children are migrating to safe areas for education and employment opportunities in search of a better life. However, millions of children are forced to leave their homes due to violence, war, persecution and exclusion. Immi grant children often have limited options for us ing safe roads and moving with their families. Children are exposed to many challenges, such as violence, abuse, exploitation or discrimina tion, on transit routes and destinations.
A child on the migration route with his teddy bear
© https://www.maghrebvoices.com/
We came on foot from the mountains for about 16 hours without food and water. We saw a lot on the way. There were some people who were leaving their newborn babies on the road in order to continue. A family left their 1-year-old baby on the road and I brought him to Turkey.”
Memoirs of a refugee from Iran.
Challenges faced by children in the country of migration
It is necessary to examine migrant children not only during these journeys, but also at their destination. It is often for them to not have the opportunity to have education and appropriate medical care wherever they go. Being foreign ers of the destination country, especially trying to learn a new language and integrate into a new culture, makes it difficult for them. The dif ferences in speech and language of education show the difficulties that children experience in their education and social life. Since children have problems with communication in their social environment, they experience difficul ties in expressing themselves and behavioral problems due to not being able to establish healthy relationships. One of the fundamental rights of children is education. Of course, these difficulties also have permanent physical and psychological effects. After these migrations, anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, antisocial person ality disorder can be seen widely among children.
Children in a refugee camp
© https://www.humanium.org/
‘’I was just a kid when I came here. It's been hard being away from all my friends. The hardest part was not being able to go out of the house here. It was very difficult to have to live in a country where I did not speak the language. In the first years, I could only spend time with a few friends who had come from my home country. After learning the language in a few years, I was able to communicate with the locals here. I am now 18 years old, but I feel really tired. It's like my struggle here has exhausted me already.’’
R. who left his country at a young age and is now an adult in his adopted country.
‘’I came here with my family and my sister. Before I came here, I was preparing to go to high school, but we had to leave the country. When we first came here, our situation was not so bad, but as time passed, being in another country caused us hard times. Instead of going to high school, I started working in a wedding dress shop. I had to put my dream of traveling the world aside…’’ Life story of S. who left her country.
A refugee child’s daily work
© https://www.nytimes.com/
Forced displacement due to conflict and destruction, the traumatic process of forced migration, disruption of economic livelihoods and solidarity networks, disintegration in social relations, isolation, stigmatization and exclusion, as well as children's disengagement from school and decline in school achievement, which will affect their future due to the mental traumas they experience, are just some of the effects of forced migration on children. The fact that these families are almost left on their own with housing, health, education, poverty, unemployment and psychological problems, which are especially effective in making them feel lonely, excluded and like refugees in their homes. The violations of rights and traumas that children experience due to both the conflicts they witness and the displacement they experience has been rendered invisible on the world's agenda.
The basis of the problems that migrant children may encounter lies in the economic, social and psychological problems that the family faces in the new environment they migrate to. In this process, it is necessary to improve the socio-economic levels of the families of migrant children, to carry out activities to strengthen their social cohesion and raise the awareness of local people on migration, to ensure that children go to school, to place orphans in orphanages, to include rehabilitation programs in the transition process from street to home, and to support and protect children mentally. In this context, public and non-governmental organizations have the responsibility to identify and guide migrant individuals in terms of their access to basic life rights such as identity, shelter, health and education…
An image of migrating children on a truck
