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ASEAN declaration seeks to protect child migrants

Tom Abke

Member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have committed to helping millions of children in their region caught up in the circumstances of migration, including protecting young migrants’ well-being and ensuring access to health care and education.

“Risks for children can be reduced and challenges overcome when the right policies are in place and implemented,” Debora Comini, UNICEF regional director for East Asia and the Pacific, and Igor Driesmans, European Union ambassador to ASEAN, said in a joint statement issued on International Migrants Day in mid-December 2021. “The ASEAN framework is clear — children do not lose their rights when they migrate. In fact, children require enhanced protection and support.”

An estimated 2 million children are displaced from their homes in Southeast Asia each year, while another 2 million arrive in the region as refugees or international migrants, according to ASEAN. Upholding the young migrants’ rights is among the 10-member organization’s sustainable development goals. (Pictured: A migrant girl waits in a village outside Mae Sot, Thailand, near the border with Myanmar, in January 2022.)

The humanitarian crisis has been exacerbated by the February 2021 coup in Myanmar and “the military’s ensuing reign of terror” in that ASEAN member state, the Mekong Migration Network reported in December 2021. More than 380,000 people, including children, have been internally displaced and tens of thousands forced to flee Myanmar to other countries, according to the network, which includes grassroots groups, research institutes and nongovernmental organizations.

The ASEAN Declaration on the Rights of Children in the Context of Migration and its associated regional plan of action offer a chance to address child safety concerns and increase cross-border collaboration through bilateral agreements, Comini and Driesmans said.

Both documents aim to ensure the rights of young migrants as defined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been ratified by all ASEAN member states, according to the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia.

In addition to a lack of basic services, young migrants face risks such as exploitation by smugglers and traffickers, forced marriage, discrimination, violence and wrongful detention.

Through the regional plan, ASEAN nations have pledged to tighten policies and procedures to improve child protection systems. That includes supplying child migrants with identity documentation, including officially registered birth certificates, as well as strengthening legislative and policy frameworks, enhancing government efforts on child protection and social welfare and allocating resources.

To avoid lengthy stays for children in migrant detention centers, the plan advocates implementation of “clean and safe non-custodial, community-based alternatives.” For unaccompanied children, ASEAN governments also will conduct family tracing and reunification programs.

The plan was adopted in October 2021 and runs through 2030. Beyond level of access to child protection services and basic needs such as food, water, education and health care, indicators to chart the plan’s progress include the availability of social workers and other service providers, and networking and collaboration among ASEAN member nations and international organizations.

“This is a dynamic region where migration can offer opportunities and benefits to families and their children,” Comini and Driesmans said. “But millions of child migrants and children of migrants continue to face risks. This can and must change.”

Tom Abke is a FORUM contributor reporting from Singapore.

 

IMAGE CREDIT: REUTERS

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