States in the Region Recognize Children and Youth as a New Migration Actor

In the Americas, the migration of children and adolescents is a multi-causal phenomenon resulting from their exposure to various forms of violence, organized crime, poverty and inequality, food insecurity, lack of educational and employment opportunities, family reunification, natural disasters, and the impacts of climate change, among other causes, which lead them to resort to migration as a survival mechanism or as a way to secure dignified living conditions.

Migrant children and adolescents are often victims of multiple forms of abuse and violence during the different stages of the migration process in countries of origin, transit, destination, or return. Children may undertake the migration process with their families, especially when they are very young or babies, or without the company of a caregiver, thereby increasing the risk of becoming victims of trafficking or exploitation.

Below is part of the text of a recent declaration adopted in the context of an OAS meeting in Washington, D.C., approved on June 23, 2023.

DECLARATION FOR THE PROTECTION AND INTEGRATION OF MIGRANT AND REFUGEE CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS IN THE AMERICAS

Encouraged in particular by the States of Chile and Colombia, the States declared their intention to:

• "Strengthen regional cooperation measures for the safe, orderly, and regular migration of girls, boys, and adolescents, helping consolidate international protection frameworks under a shared-responsibility approach, as well as prevent and mitigate the structural causes of irregular migration, refuge, asylum-seeking, and statelessness affecting these persons in countries of origin through a series of indicated actions;
• Recognize that the rights of girls, boys, and adolescents are inherent to them and apply regardless of their migration status.
• Reaffirm our commitment to implementing and systematizing regular migration pathways for migrant children and adolescents, including recognition of refugee status or complementary protection, as well as protection and safeguarding of the human rights of unaccompanied and/or separated asylum-seeking and refugee children, underlining the importance of the best interests of the child principle.
• Advance the need to eliminate legal or administrative barriers that may prevent migrant, refugee, asylum-seeking, and stateless children and adolescents, in any migration situation or context, from enjoying human rights on equal terms with national children in host countries, such as those related to education and health, subject to their systems of political and administrative division. To this end, we seek to move forward in making administrative requirements more flexible and facilitating school and university enrollment, as well as recognition of qualifications.
• Reaffirm the importance of promoting the enjoyment of the human rights of girls, boys, and adolescents in migration contexts by addressing the problem of lack of documentation, recognizing the right to identity, including nationality, name, and legal personality; and the importance of States of origin issuing identity documents to their nationals and recognizing the importance of implementing policies that reduce the risk of statelessness, among other challenges.
• Promote measures that facilitate the social integration of migrant, refugee, asylum-seeking, and stateless children and adolescents in host countries, through a series of indicative measures listed."