ISSUE BRIEF: Children on the Move in Niger
Migrant children and women, especially those without documentation, are vulnerable to trafficking, abuse and exploitation.
Highlights
Over the past decades, the issue of migration has considerably increased in Niger. The movement of migrants through the Sahara Desert continues to have a devastating toll on human life with many dying on their way across the desert – a journey which entails severe risks, such as extra judicial killings, death through dehydration and starvation, extortion, torture, sexual violence and exploitation, and forced labor.
In 2019:
- 643,374 migrants were registered by the migration flow monitoring mechanism in Niger. 70,771 of them were children
- 10,772 nigerien migrants were expulsed from Algeria to Niger including 4,740 women and children.
Children on the move are exposed to multiple risks, which make them extremely vulnerable, especially when they are having to move outside of safe and legal pathways, and are unaccompanied and/or separated.
Children on the move are those who migrate within their countries oracross borders. Children move for many reasons – to seek protectionand a better life, and to reunite with family. Some children migrate withtheir families, while others move alone because of conflict, naturaldisaster or other deprivations. Some are left in their countries of origin when their caregivers migrate in search of opportunities or protection.
Thanks to support from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the RDPP NA Programme, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, and the EU - UNICEF is helping migrant children have access to support, education and protection.
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