Supporting Child Refugees and Migrants

Dear Friend,

Refugee and migrant children and families often face extreme hardships in their countries of origin and in transit. COVID-19 is amplifying harrowing situations for migrant and asylum-seeking children across Central America, Mexico and the United States. After fleeing gang violence in their communities, these children face threats of traffickers and cartels along migration routes, gender based violence and government policies that diminish their opportunity to thrive. Such policies include immigration detention and border closures that restrict access to international protection – a lifeline when the threat of gang retaliation and violence waits at home.

Detention is equally traumatizing for children. After days in facilities that often lack quality standards of care and hygiene, many children are forced to return back to violent communities. Oftentimes, children are held in detention without any information about their safety or their asylum case. Tens of thousands of children are held in Mexico alone each year. As policies change quickly, the need to improve case management for migrant children, increase protection, remove children from detention centers and install critical safety measures across the region is vital.

While the information we have is often incomplete, there is much that we already know about what works, and what needs to be done to ensure displaced children and young people are on the right track to survive and thrive. Fortunately, there is a growing recognition of the importance of ensuring access to mental health and psychosocial support for children, adolescents, primary caregivers, and families, and expanding community-based approaches to address and prevent common mental health conditions.

With your support, UNICEF was able to strengthen protection of migrant children at a critical juncture, and build capacity of government and civil society actors to support the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of children, while working to improve reception and care systems for the long term. In addition, UNICEF expanded child protection services, improved capacity building to service providers, case management and advocated for policy changes in Mexico, the United States, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. This cross-border program has helped to meet the unique and comprehensive needs of children, including direct community needs as well as reinforcing policies that prioritize children’s wellbeing.

UNICEF’s engagement with the U.S. government increased significantly in 2021, providing important opportunities to expand impact for children. At the very start of the year, UNICEF worked alongside other UN agencies to bring asylum-seeking families safely into the United States as a part of the “End MPP Operation” – a US government led operation to wind down a policy that returned families to Mexico to wait out their asylum proceedings (the Migrant Protection Protocols or “MPP”).  UNICEF helped develop child-sensitive procedures related to the operation and provided direct support on child protection cases, while also building up reception capacity in northern Mexico. Overall, the operation helped over 13,000 family members with asylum cases within the U.S. be transferred into US territory.

UNICEF programming in the US, Mexico and Central America is helping children and families return to normalcy after harrowing experiences. Children – no matter where they come from or what their migration status – are children first and foremost. Thanks to your support children are being matched with a chance at a healthy, happy and productive future.

On behalf of migrant children in the region, thank you.

In Partnership,

Kelly Procida

Dear Friend,

Ethiopia continues to face a severe humanitarian crisis as a result of the conflict in Tigray, with massive internal displacement, as well as refugee outflow into neighboring countries, predominantly into Sudan. As of May, it is estimated that 3.6 million people have been internally displaced as a result of the conflict in Tigray. Access remains an issue in Tigray and surrounding regions, with limited routes for aid access and continued threats against aid workers.

UNICEF is acutely concerned about food insecurity and subsequent malnutrition in displaced children. The typical belg rains that fuel the healthy growth of crops in the spring arrived a month later than usual; as a result, experts expect lower crop yields that will directly affect food security in the region. Lower yields will also lead to inflated prices, with market prices of staple foods already increasing by 19.2 percent in April.

Thanks to your support of UNICEF’s work on behalf of migrants and refugees around the world, UNICEF continues its life saving work to treat malnutrition for those impacted by this crisis. A total of 152,413 children in the country have been treated for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) between January – April 2021 with UNICEF direct support, and an additional 38,032 under 5 children were treated in May. Preventative measures have also been deployed. In May, counselling on infant and young child feeding was provided to pregnant women and caregivers with children under two years, reaching a cumulative 15,231 caregivers with counseling. Similarly, some 9,563 children aged 6-59 months have received Vitamin A supplementation.

Additionally, your support has ensured UNICEF continues to be able to provide education support for displaced children, returnees and other emergency-affected children in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and NGO partners. In total, 104,780 children have been reached through the provision of education services supported by UNICEF, government and NGO partners in emergency-affected regions of Ethiopia including Tigray. UNICEF is collaborating with Plan International to provide Bete services for children affected by the recent conflict in the area (Bete is an integrated child protection and education approach). Despite these important efforts, a number of education partners in IDP camps are not being reached with the support and supplies they need.

Finally, your generosity has allowed for UNICEF’s continued support of child protection and emergency services for internally displaced persons and returnees in the region. Some 4,001 children were reached with messaging on prevention and access to child protection and gender-based violence (GBV) services as it relates to COVID-19, and 10,222 women, boys and girls were provided with GBV risk mitigation, prevention and response services. Since January, 9,891 children and caregivers were provided with mental health and psychosocial support that included safe space activities, socio-emotional learning sessions and parenting education for caregivers. These sessions have enabled caregivers to understand and manage their own emotional experience and develop realistic expectations of child behavior that are appropriate to the developmental level of their child.

Thank you for standing alongside UNICEF in support of the children and communities effected by the worsening crisis throughout the Tigray region. Your generosity continues to serve as a light for those who have been forced to flee their homes and will ensure continued support for these resilient communities.

In Partnership,

Whitney