Berlin/Osnabrück, November 6, 2023 – On the occasion of today's federal-state refugee summit, the international children's rights organization terre des hommes expressed its concern about the situation of refugee children: "They live in overcrowded accommodations, standards are being increasingly lowered, and child and youth welfare services are hardly involved," laments Sophia Eckert, legal and migration expert at terre des hommes . "Their rights to adequate living conditions, protection from violence, and access to education and healthcare, as guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, are often violated. These rights apply to all children."
According to terre des hommes today's refugee summit offers an opportunity to redefine the shared responsibility of the federal government, states, and municipalities for the reception of children seeking protection, along with their families and unaccompanied minors. In the future, civil society organizations working with refugee children should also be consulted and heard.
According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, from January to September 2023, approximately one-third of asylum seekers were children and young people under the age of 18. Like all children, they are subject to the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, regardless of their country of origin or residency status. terre des hommes calls on the German Federal Government and local authorities to finally implement these provisions. This means, among other things, enabling decentralized accommodation for refugee children. To this end, the obligation to reside in reception centers (§ 47 Asylum Act) for children and their families must be lifted, and the option of releasing families from reception centers early (§ 49 para. 2 Asylum Act) must be utilized nationwide. Furthermore, access to public child and youth welfare services for both accompanied and unaccompanied refugee children must be guaranteed, and they must have access to healthcare, early childhood education, and regular schools.
Press contact
- Wolf-Christian Ramm, Tel. 0171-6729748, c.ramm@tdh.de