By Biodun Busari

The United Nations has revealed that about 41 million children became displaced from mid-2022 to date globally, according to a report on Wednesday.

According to CBS, the world governing body said the children became victims of destitution as a result of war, poverty and climate change.

In the report, Protecting the Rights of Children on the Move in Times of Crisis, compiled by seven separate UN agencies, 100 million people were homeless and 41 per cent of them turned out to be children or young persons.

It further revealed that these homeless children are at risk of becoming victims of sexual abuse, forced labour, trafficking, child marriage, illegal adoption and other global troubling issues.

“These children are exposed to a heightened risk of violence,” warned the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, one of the contributing agencies. 

“This includes sexual abuse and exploitation, forced labour, trafficking, child marriage, illegal/illicit adoption, recruitment by criminal and armed groups (including terrorist groups) and deprivation of liberty.” 

“Children on the move are children, first and foremost, and their rights move with them,” the lead advocate of the joint report, Dr Najat Maalla M’jid, the UN Special Representative on Violence against Children.

The UN outgoing migration chief, Antonio Vitorino, said many displaced kids “remain invisible to national child protection systems or are caught in bureaucratic nets of lengthy processes of status determination.”

The UN agencies jointly called in the report for individual nations to invest “in strong rights-based national protection systems that include displaced children, rather than excluding them or creating separate services for them, has proven to be more sustainable and effective in the long-term.”

The UN, then, said all children should be granted “non-discriminatory access to national services — including civil documentation such as birth registration, social welfare, justice, health, education, and social protection.” 

Reacting to the issue, Spanish actress Penelope Cruz advocated that children around the world must be protected regardless of their status or the countries they come from.

“Keeping all children safe from harm and promoting their wellbeing with particular attention to those in crisis situations is, and must be,  everybody’s business. Children must be protected everywhere and in all circumstances,” Cruz said.