Commonwealth heads need to act on global child refugee crisis

I implore the Commonwealth heads of state meeting in London this week to make the global child refugee crisis a priority. Fifty million children worldwide have been displaced from their homes by war, disaster and persecution. On their difficult and dangerous journey across key migrant routes they face risks of abuse, forced labour, child slavery and trafficking. Yet approaches to this crisis are failing vulnerable children.

Government attempts to prevent the safe entry of refugees into their countries have endangered children, forcing them on to more dangerous routes or into the hands of unscrupulous people smugglers. Frequently, arbitrary immigration rules – even in the UK – deport child refugees when they turn 18 or prevent unaccompanied children from being reunited with their families. This unique gathering of leaders brings together countries that have witnessed this devastating crisis from multiple perspectives – countries from which children are fleeing violent conflict and countries in which they seek refuge. Including Nigeria, where the Boko Haram insurgency has displaced millions; Bangladesh, which has received 650,000 Rohingya children since August; and Cyprus, which sits along the European migrant route.

Imagine what could be achieved if these nations were to stand united to support child refugees. I urge them all to demonstrate their shared values of human rights, tolerance and respect by working towards a fairer and more just solution to this crisis.
Alison Wallace
CEO, SOS Children’s Villages UK

• International development secretary Penny Mordaunt’s address in London (Report, 12 April) has raised concerns that children have not been made a primary focus by the Department for International Development. We feel that any UK aid, whatever department oversees it, should prioritise the most vulnerable children and their needs. This is a win-win approach to work towards achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and ensures no one is left behind.

We know that around 535 million children – a quarter of the world’s child population – are living in fragile and conflict-affected states. Yet, globally, less than 1% of the official development assistance is spent on ending violence against children. This means those in fragile states are deprived of the normal protection of community, school and family, and are at serious risk of violence and abuse at the hands of slavers, traffickers, armed groups and all those who would exploit them.
Sarah Pickwick
Senior conflict adviser, World Vision UK

• Perhaps now, the mature trees of Sheffield (17,500 in danger of being felled under the council’s PFI contract) can after all, be saved and incorporated into the Queen’s Canopy (The Queen’s Green Planet review, 16 April). Let’s silence the chainsaws and join Commonwealth countries in a project dedicated to the maintenance of biodiversity, a healthy environment and the protection of our precious trees for generations to come.
Jenny O’Shea
London

• Afua Hirsch’s piece (What is the Commonwealth if not the British Empire 2.0?, 18 April) makes interesting reading, but the most disheartening aspect of the Commonwealth is not that “while Britain is proud of the institution, its black and brown people are regarded with contempt”. Unacceptable as it is, white-on-black-and-brown contempt in the UK is nothing compared with the homegrown black-on-black and brown-on-brown contempt in Africa, the Caribbean and south-east Asia. You only have to look at the appalling post-election violence in Kenya, the constitutional amendment in Uganda, or India’s system of “untouchables”, for example.

The real outrage is the ever-widening gap between rich and poor Commonwealth countries. It so outrageous that the theme of the 2018 summit – Towards a common future – would be comical if the reality of dehumanising poverty was not so tragic for African, south-east Asian and Caribbean countries and their peoples, especially the millions of unemployed youths as well as city slum women and their children, who are living in tin shacks without running water, adequate food, sanitation or security. Their intolerable poverty is manifesting itself in mass migration in search of a better life in the rich Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada and the UK.

Instead of pretending that all Commonwealth countries and peoples are moving “towards a common future”, the rich members should prioritise assisting their poor counterparts in tackling population growth, which is the primary cause of environmental degradation, urbanisation, unemployment, famine, political violence and ultimately mass migration.
Sam Akaki
Executive director, African Solutions to African Migration

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