Children in Exile: Exploring the Situation of Eritrean Unaccompanied Refugee Children in Ethiopia: -The Case of Mai-Ayni Refugee Camp, Northern Ethiopia
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Date
2015
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
It is estimated that unaccompanied children constitute 2-5 percent of the refugee population.
Though every refugee is exposed to various human rights violations and risks, unaccompanied
refugee children stand at greater risk of all. Recently, Eritrean unaccompanied children are fleeing
into Ethiopia and live in different refugee camps found in the Northern part. Nonetheless, a study
about this group of refugees is very limited. Thus, this study is aimed at exploring the situation of
these children in Ethiopia through the case study of Mai-Ayni refugee camp from a human rights
perspective. It particularly tries to look at the reasons for departure, the journey process with
particular reference to decision to leave, journey arrangement and challenges/risks during journey,
the situation of the children once they arrived in Mai-Ayni refugee camp and their futurity in terms
of a durable solution. Qualitative methods were employed to explore the situations of the children.
In doing so, the data were gathered through in-depth interview with unaccompanied refugee
children, key informants interview, FGD, personal observation and document analysis. Results of
this study reveal that the children have fled to Ethiopia because of fear of the ongoing forced
military conscription, economic problem, educational problem, family reunification, peer pressure
and hope of resettlement and transit into other state. The study also shows that most of
unaccompanied refugee children decide to leave Eritrea by themselves without the knowledge of
their parents and some by the decision of their parents using the service of brokers/smugglers.
Further, results indicate that the children experience terrible challenges to escape from Eritrea
principally caused by strong military surveillance on the Eritrean government side which operates
on “shoot-to-kill policy” to those fleeing the state. Moreover, the results of this study show that
children are afforded with basic facilities such as food, education, health and psycho-social support
in Mai-Ayni refugee camp. In addition the children are assigned with social worker as guardians
and enjoy the rights to participation in a child parliament. However, they are affected by
depression, longing and nostalgia for their parents and anxiety about the future. Durable solutions
that end the children stress and anxiety are rather scarce, with only one option-resettlement. This
situation makes the futurity of the children invisible and problematic. Consequently, unaccompanied
refugee children involve into secondary movement to Sudan and through this route to Libya and
finally reach Europe. During this second journey, the children are exposed to a multitude of human
rights violation including sexual abuse to female children, sometimes extending to males, forced
labor and other psychical damage
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Keywords
Refugee, Children, Unaccompanied Children, Unaccompanied Refugee Children, Mai-Ayni Refugee Camp