The endless plight of refugee children

In a report titled “Coming Together for Refugee Education,” UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has predicted that unless immediate and bold action is taken by the international community to beat back the catastrophic effects of COVID-19 on refugee education, the potential of millions of young refugees living in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities will be further threatened. The matter is too serious to be ignored by the international community.

While children in every country have struggled with the impact of COVID-19 on their education, refugee children have been particularly disadvantaged.

Before the pandemic, a refugee child was twice as likely to be out of school as a non-refugee child. This is set to worsen – many may not have opportunities to resume their studies due to school closures, have difficulty affording fees, uniforms or books and lack of access to technologies or because they are being required to work to support their families.

Half of the world’s refugee children are already out of school, as stated by Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “After everything they have endured, we cannot rob them of their future by denying them an education today. Despite the enormous challenges posed by the pandemic, with greater international support to refugees and their host communities, we can expand innovative ways to protect the critical gains made in refugee education over the past years.”

Without greater support, steady, hard-won increases in school, university, and technical and vocational education enrolment could be reversed – in some cases permanently — potentially jeopardising efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education for all.

The Vodafone Foundation and UNHCR Ambassador for the Instant Network Schools Programme, Mohamed Salah, has rightly stated: “Ensuring quality education today means less poverty and suffering tomorrow. Unless everyone plays their part, generations of children – millions of them in some of the world’s poorest regions – will face a bleak future. But if we work as a team, as one, we can give them the chance they deserve to have a dignified future. Let’s not miss this opportunity.”

The 2019 data in the report is based on reporting from twelve countries hosting more than half of the world’s refugee children. While there is 77% gross enrolment in primary school, only 31% of youth are enrolled in secondary school. At the level of higher education, only 3% of refugee youth are enrolled.

Far behind global averages, these statistics nevertheless do represent progress. Enrolment in secondary education rose with tens of thousands of refugee children newly attending school; a 2% increase in 2019 alone.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic now threatens to undo this and other crucial advances. For refugee girls, the threat is particularly grave.

It should be noted that refugee girls already have less access to education than boys and are half as likely to be enrolled in school by the time they reach secondary level.

COVID-19 is a health crisis that has had a huge impact on the global community and people on the move can be exposed to the virus in crowded conditions where health care, water and sanitation are often hard to find, and physical distancing is an impossible luxury.

COVID-19 is now also triggering a mental health crisis among refugees who are already facing challenging situations.

One could imagine the plight of children in such a situation.