Unaccompanied Migrant Children in the Americas: the Invisible Journey.

• Position: Essay

Migration impacts people in different ways depending on their age at the time of migration. Children are particularly vulnerable in situations of irregular migration and especially when they travel alone. The Inter-American Children's Institute (IIN), a specialized agency of the OAS, is carrying out activities aimed at promoting the rights of unaccompanied migrant children. The inevitable point of departure is recognizing the problem and making it visible.

Today, 214 million people in the world are living outside of their country of birth. A large number of them are children who have either emigrated with their parents or travelled unaccompanied (through regular or irregular, internal or external, migration). Increasingly, migrants are travelling in irregular situations in the Americas, and an estimated 20 percent of these migrants are children. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes the right to migrate, and Article 13 of that document states that people have the right to leave any country and to return if they so desire. Article 14 talks about the right to asylum in the case of persecution. Children who migrate, however, often do so in very unfavorable conditions. Their rights are often violated, and they are significantly vulnerable to threats that can endanger their lives or their physical and mental wellbeing.

Unaccompanied minors emigrate for various reasons: to reunite with parents, to seek opportunities for study and/or work, to find better living conditions, or to escape from situations of insecurity, violence, and exploitation. Unaccompanied minors are often teenagers who travel alone on irregular routes. They have no legal or social protection and, in most cases, they are unaware of their rights as migrants. As they travel through various countries, they are exposed to different kinds of abuse. They may become victims of labor exploitation or be trafficked for labor or for sexual purposes. Unaccompanied minors are also vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse, discrimination, and mistreatment. All of these situations have a profound emotional impact on the child.

One of the main problems for unaccompanied migrant children is that their situation is not very visible or recognized. Migration policies and programs generally do not include a perspective or focus on the particular issues that affect children and teenagers.

The effort to intervene on behalf of the safety and wellbeing of migrant children in our region...