THE VOICE OF MIGRANT AND REFUGEE CHILDREN LIVING IN BELGIUM This report was drafted by Maud Dominicy. Thanks to Cédric Vallet for his careful reading and the fnal rewrite. Thanks to Greet De Ridder, Nathalie San Gil and Philippe Henon for their precious help in proofreading and preparing the layout for this report. Thanks also to Dominique Ceuppens and Rudi Decort. Thanks to Sophie Berlamont, Marie D’Haese, Jean-Paul Françoey, Olivier Marquet, Ulrike Nackaerts, Julie Piette, Anne Catherine Rasson, Pascale Recht, Charlotte Van den Abeele and Anneleen Van Kelecom for their presence and their help throughout the process. UNICEF Belgium would like to thank the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD) for the fnancial support provided for the elaboration of this report. Any part of the report may be freely reproduced by using the following reference: ‘The voice of migrant and refugee children living in belgium.’ ‘What do you think?’ Report, UNICEF Belgium, 2018. The purpose of ‘What Do You Think? ‘ is to give a voice to vulnerable children. In 1999, UNICEF Belgium launched this initiative with the goal of making the voice of the most vulnerable children and young people (migrant and refugee children, children with a disability, sick children, children in psychiatric care, children in confict with the law, children afected by poverty) heard at the highest level and to ensure that they can be heard by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (the United Nations body that monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child). “Everyone’s voice can change people’s views, life, the way Cover photo and illustration: of seeing things. You just have to allow a person the right © UNICEFUN047914Herwig to express themselves as you express yourself. That’s all the © UNICEFUN058010anonymous problem is. You have to let people speak. Maybe we’ll find we have things in common. There’ll be things that I like and that you like. We’ll get to know each other. That’s how a friendship is created. That’s what creates love.” - 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL, DRC - REPORT ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK’? 2 © Ruud van der Graaf EXPERIENCES We miss our country P. 28 War, insecurity and violence P. 31 TABLE OF OF CHILDREN IN THEIR Discrimination and inequalities P. 36 COUNTRY OF ORIGIN Poverty and corruption P. 40 P. 26 CONTENTS EXPERIENCES OF CHILDREN Harrowing journeys P. 43 ON THE ROAD Child labour and exploitation in transit countries P. 46 P. 42 Hoped-for safety P. 49 The family P. 56 The procedure P. 60 P. 5 CHILDREN’S EXPERIENCES SThuep plaorrgt efo rre rceespiltiieonnc cee: nsctrheoso l, lei sure activitie s and frie nds P. 7831 PREFACE IN BELGIUM Isolated teenage mothers P. 92 P. 48 HOPES AND DREAMS OF MIGRANT AND REFUGEE CHILDREN P. 7 SUMMARY P. 102 INTERPRETING THE PRIORITIES: CHILDREN ASK FOR MORE PROTECTION P. 15 P. 106 INTRODUCTION Children’s recommendations P. 111 CONCLUSION UNICEF’s recommendations P. 116 P. 108 P. 18 METHODOLOGY ANNEX: PROJECT PARTNERS P. 118 UNICEF 3 “I’m making my voice heard and I hope that someone can hear me and say: okay, we can do something. We can help you. This way, we can envisage the future. And I’ll say it once more. And a thousand times more, I’ll say: simply look at other people as human beings. You shouldn’t say that I’m a Syrian girl. Or that I’m a refugee. Or that I’m a Shiite. Or a Sunni. I’m a human being. A human being. I have a heart. You have a heart. You have feelings. I have feelings. Please, look at me this way. I’m a human being” - 20-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA - REPORT ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK’? 4 © Ruud van der Graaf right from which they can beneft. Because children are best placed to describe their difculties and fnd solutions to their problems. The United Nations Convention on the REPORT PREFACE Rights of the Child gives them the right to participate in the decisions concerning them. ‘WHAT DO YOU This report ofers the opportunity to read some of these children’s accounts; accounts THINK’? THE VOICE OF MIGRANT AND REFUGEE CHILDREN that were collected over a two-year period. You can read the unfltered opinions, LIVING IN BELGIUM experiences, joys and sadness of these refugee children in Belgium. This is what makes it an exceptional text. They talk about their experience and their rights in Belgium, in their country of origin and on the road. We would like to warmly thank all the children and young people who participated in UNICEF Belgium’s ‘What Do You Think?’ project. This report would never have been Half of all refugees are children. There are some nine million of them worldwide who published without them. We would also like to thank the educators, social workers are living far from home, feeing from conficts, violence and poverty. The vast majority and guardians who work alongside them every day and, without whom, this project of refugees fnd – often precarious – shelter in Asia (50 %) and in Africa (32 %). Europe would not have been possible. Through this report, we want to make the voices of only participates in the reception of the planet’s exiles to a very small extent: only 14 % migrant and refugee children living in Belgium heard. There is a lot we can learn from of them have found refuge here. their stories. Since 2015, the ‘refugee crisis’ is everywhere. This ‘crisis’ – which is a reception These stories are sometimes violent and appalling. They are difcult to imagine crisis above all – lies at the heart of political and media debates. But in this food of and read. Sometimes, they are beyond comprehension. Many describe an extreme information, some voices are practically inaudible: those of the most vulnerable among violence that no child should ever have to sufer. But as terrible as these stories may the vulnerable: migrant and refugee children. be, they are those of children and young people who survived. We didn’t hear the And yet, many of them have settled in Belgium. However, they are rarely invited to talk voices of the thousands of children who died in their country or on the road. Their about their life in exile or the hardships they have endured along a road full of pitfalls. silence should also remind us of our responsibilities. There are all too few occasions to listen to what they have to say about what pushed them to leave or about their reception in Belgium. But when they are given the opportunity, it is clear that they are driven by a deep desire to share their life experiences and their story. They want to talk and hope that we, as responsible adults, are listening to them, without patronizing them. By expressing their opinion, these children are not always aware of the fact that they are also expressing their rights. Rights that should always be in the decision-makers’ minds and that are written in black and white in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. These children want to participate. To explain the road and its obstacles, the drastic nature of feeing, so that we can better understand them. These children would like this participation to be meaningful; it should lead to something and infuence the decisions Olivier Marquet Maud Dominicy directly concerning them, if only a little; the decisions relating to the rights of children in Executive Director Child Rights Ofcer migration. UNICEF Belgium UNICEF Belgium We must never forget that migrant and refugee children are children, frst and foremost, regardless of their migratory status. Listening to their opinions and fnding out about their experiences is not some whim nor a gift to these children. It is a fundamental UNICEF 5 WARNINGS This project involved the participation of 170 children. However, this study cannot be considered as representative of all the migrant and refugee children living in Belgium. This was not the objective of the ‘What Do You Think?’ project, which favours a qualitative approach, that will continue in time, over a quantitative approach. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily refect the children’s points of view on the centres where they are currently living. Nearly all the children consulted had lived in several reception centres beforehand. Considering the taking in charge of isolated teenage mothers, UNICEF Belgium wishes to stress the important work done in Belgium over the least ten years and thanks the authorities in charge for following up on certain recommendations that have been given by these young mothers. DEFINITION In this report, we refer to migrant and refugee children. This corresponds to the defnition of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: For the purposes of the Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years, unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier. REPORT ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK’? 6 © UNICEFuni167881zaidi SUMMARY UNICEF 7 © UNICEF/UN057956/Gilbertson SUMMARY ‘What Do You Think?’ is a participatory initiative. These children’s words were Belgium or Syria, it wasn’t a choice. There were problems in collected over a two-year period by the UNICEF team in reception centres and Syria, insecurity, war. There was a chance we could die. We schools. This report compiles their opinions and experiences in one document which had to flee, have a new life, a future. focuses on what they have gone through, laid bare like a raw material. Fleeing, crossing borders, on foot, by boat, by truck. Dealing with violence. Arriving These accounts don’t simply have a documentary purpose. No. This report is a in Belgium, seeking asylum, breathing, living in a reception centre, playing, but also transmission belt between the words of these young people, eager to participate, enduring loneliness, lack of privacy, a never-ending procedure. and the decision-makers, who are sometimes far removed from these realities. These words have resulted in very serious and precise recommendations aimed at All these experiences were encountered by this 17-year-old Syrian girl, the mother of a improving the rights of migrant and refugee children. young baby. She talks about her exile, her fears and her difculties, just like the other 169 migrant and refugee children who speak in this report. Recommendations that will be sent to high places, to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva and to political decision-makers in Belgium. 170 children. 36 nationalities. 66 girls. All these children give their account and describe their unique journey, their experiences, but also their dreams. These The profles of these young refugees and migrants were extremely varied. The children, robbed of their carefree childhood all too soon, were forced to leave their children who agreed to participate in the ‘What Do You Think?’ project were between country. Sometimes alone, sometimes with their family; in some cases, it is the exile eight and twenty years old. In rare cases, the words of these young adults were taken that separated them from their family. They are so young and yet, they have already into account, if they had fed their country as unaccompanied minors. lived a thousand lives. Today, these children are living in Belgium. Accompanied by their family Non-accompanied Isolated teenage mothers OTHERS OTHERS DRC OTHERS 40 16 5 2 DRC AFGHANISTAN AFGHANISTAN 3 1 47 MOROCCO MOROCCO 2 3 SYRIA 57 SYRIA 98 15 SYRIA GUINEA 11 GUINEA 11 GUINEA 3 2 12 7 ERITREA 5 Proportion girls/boys: 66 girls / 104 boys REPORT ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK’? 8 Some of these children had made the journey together with their family (33.5 %), while others arrived alone in Belgium (57.6 %). One characteristic concerning some of the young girls in exile was that they were already mother to young children. Isolated teenage mothers represent 8.8 % of our sample group and are given particular attention. Finally, we should note the broad range of nationalities of origin among these children that form a kaleidoscope of migration. Forty-eight were Afghan, 25 Syrian and 21 Guinean. Eight came from the Democratic Republic of DRC. A common thread runs through all these stories: these children’s migratory experience is recent. Some of them had only arrived in Belgium a few weeks before the interview. Others had been here for a few years. But the memory was very present; still very much alive and never far from the surface. Nearly all the children and young TOTAL people lived in reception centres for asylum seekers. Those who no longer Afghanistan 48 lived in a centre had been through Syria 25 several of them. All the children and Guinea 21 young people participated in the initiative through participatory tools. DRC 8 Eritrea 5 Morocco 5 Others 58 Total 170 UNICEF 9 © UNICEFBelgium Needs to be met The situation of uprooted children in the world ‘What Do You Think?’ is a sharp reminder of what should be obvious: children and in Belgium need to be protected and they need to be with their families. This is what 396.740 children say and repeat. children have requested asylum in This document divides the children’s accounts into three main categories. Those Europe in 2016 concerning the country of origin, nostalgia and reasons for the exile. Those describing the conditions of the fight, the migratory journey, the road. 50 million children are uprooted And lastly, in a fnal part, the children describe their living conditions in their host in the world society, here, in Belgium. Here are a few salient features of these accounts: In the countries of origin: ‘I don’t like the violence of war. Children are always frightened to go to school because of the war. - 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL, SYRIA - Many of the refugee children were exposed to war and insecurity. Others were faced with violence and discrimination; inequalities, poverty. In nearly every case, the exile is linked to a traumatic experience. The accounts of children who have fed war are chilling. They speak of death, forced exile, child labour, rape, % forced labour, separation of families, hunger and ever-present fear. Many children 50 also reveal discrimination linked to religion, ethnicity, gender or social status. Some girls tell of how they were circumsised or forced to marry. The majority of the children also speak of inequality and corruption. They address us directly 4.960 because, in many countries, ‘a poor child is worth nothing!’ children have requested asylum of all migrants are in Belgium in 2016 children REPORT ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK’? 10