Protection beyond reach State of play of refugee and migrant children’s rights in Europe This briefing has been issued by Save the Children’s European Migration Advocacy Group Contact: Karen Mets
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[email protected] Cover photo: Unaccompanied boy in the the Bira Temporary Reception Centre, in Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina © Velija Hasanbegovic / Save the Children Introduction I think that the asylum system doesn’t work. Nobody told me much about it, and I haven’t met anyone who asked for asylum. Abdul*, 17, Egypt, interviewed in Bihac in Bosnia and Herzegovina Five years ago, on 2 September 2015, three-year- The sharp increase in anti-migrant sentiments and old Alan Kurdi lost his life just off the Turkish coast. radical right-wing populism has had a profound effect Images of his dead body have become a tragic symbol on laws and policies, leading to measures of control and of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’, when over 1 million security that disproportionally affect children, whether they refugees and migrants, a third of whom were chil- are travelling alone or with their families. At the same time, dren, entered Europe.1 His drowning was expected to the situation in countries of origin, where Save the Children inspire new measures to protect migrant and refugee also works, continues to be precarious. As the conflict in children. Instead, as this report shows, five years later Syria enters its tenth year, half of the country’s 8 million refugee and migrant children are often worse off.