UNICEF slams treatment of refugee children in Germany
June 21, 2016
Germany does not extend the same rights to refugee children as it does to native-born children, UNICEF has said. This was worrying for a group in need of special care, the children's organization has warned.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/D. Karmann
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The UN children's organization UNICEF published a report on Tuesday decrying the circumstances of refugee children in Germany. According to the report, refugee children not only have far lower standards of safety, medical treatment and education than their German-born counterparts, but are also treated very differently depending on their prospects for being allowed to stay in Germany.
"Refugee children have often survived horrors and brutal violence. For this reason they need special protection and care," said German UNICEF chief Christian Schneider.
The report accused the German government of negligence in the face of Europe's unprecedented refugee crisis. The organization had already pointed out in 2014, UNICEF said, that the rights of migrant children were not being respected, and the recent influx of refugees has served to make the situation much worse.
Not only do refugee youth lack access to the education afforded to German children, the amount of time they have to stay with their families in unsafe and unsanitary first arrival centers has doubled from the minimum three months to half a year.
This creates a problem for children's integration when they eventually start school in Germany.
UNICEF also took issue with that it called "special facilities" set aside for families with a low chance of remaining in Germany. The children in these facilities may not go to school nor do they receive any other sort of educational opportunity.
The organization called on Berlin to implement refugee children's rights to be in a safe, a hygienic environment with access to learning and the psychological assistance necessary to many young people who have experienced trauma in their country of origin.
Idomeni: Trauma through a girl's eyes
Thousands of refugees are still stranded in Idomeni. Children here have witnessed traumatic events - from war at home to horrible conditions at the camp, facing an uncertain future. One girl shares her haunting pictures.
Image: DW/M.Karakoulaki
Destruction of a child's home
A young Syrian refugee girl took up pen and paper to express what she's lived through. Here, the red text reads: "This is Syria, the ghost of death. Syria is bleeding." She's drawn tanks shelling a town. Helicopters and fighter jets are up in the air. Houses are burning. One lone figure is standing by a grave, looking on.
Image: DW/M.Karakoulaki
Death and despair
"That's the grave of my father and mother and my family - and all the families of the Syrians," the girl wrote. "That's the situation of the children of Syria." The picture she's holding shows three graves, along with people who are lying on the ground, mourning. Both her parents are with her at the camp in Idomeni, but she has witnessed others losing their families.
Image: DW/M.Karakoulaki
Children are dying
This drawing depicts the washed up body of Aylan Kurdi, the young boy who died trying to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece. His death showed Europe the depth of the refugee crisis, and he has since become a symbol for the suffering of children who cross the Aegean in the hopes of a new life.
Image: DW/M.Karakoulaki
'This is the real tragedy of the Syrian people'
Thousands of people have lost their lives at sea. Hundreds of children have lost their parents. It's a dangerous journey - yet most parents say they'd go through that ordeal again to escape the fighting back home. They would cross the Aegean no matter what if it meant their children would have the chance to grow up away from the war, they told DW.
Image: DW/M.Karakoulaki
Life, interrupted
The hopes and dreams of children in Idomeni have been put on hold. A lot of them are dreaming of meeting their fathers who had crossed the borders before them. They were hoping to settle in before bringing their families over. "All the hopes, all the dreams of the children are in the trash can," the girl wrote.
Image: DW/M.Karakoulaki
Lost dreams
"The children's dream of Europe is lost now," the girl added to her grim drawing. Many of the children in Idomeni were hoping for peaceful lives in Europe where they can pursue their plans for the future. Most of them have said they plan to study medicine and engineering. But all they can do at the moment is wait.
Image: DW/M.Karakoulaki
'Bad situation'
In this picture, the girl shows a gathering at the refugee camp. Although Idomeni has the largest amount of refugees in Greece, it is not a permanent or an official camp - something that makes living here difficult. She's given the drawing the title "This is the meeting. The bad situation."
Image: DW/M.Karakoulaki
'The camp is a graveyard'
Europe's mishandling of the refugee crisis will one day be written about in history books according to many who have been witnessing the way the crisis has unfolded since its beginning.
Image: DW/M.Karakoulaki
'Hunger in the camp'
Most refugees in Idomeni have sold all their belongings in order to be able to cross the borders. Being stuck in Idomeni means they will eventually run out of money as their undetermined status leaves them with limited options. The girl's drawing depicts a crying woman with kids tugging on her clothes. A man shows his empty pockets.
Image: DW/M.Karakoulaki
'They need to feel they are children'
The girl, about 10 years old, is one of the many children at the camp who've experienced traumatic events at such a young age. "They ask for a sense of normality. They need to feel that they are children," Aggela Boletsi, a field psychologist with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), told DW. Instead, they have to deal with the uncertainty of their future and the memories that come back to haunt them.
