Voices from the Border: Children and Young People on the Run

Millions of children and young people are fleeing their homes around the world – often alone, without protection or prospects. Their rights are systematically violated at the EU's external borders. In this article, we take a closer look – and let personal stories and voices from the borders speak for themselves, highlighting the reality of young people seeking protection.

How Many Children and Young People Are Fleeing Their Homes?

According to the UNHCR Global Trend Report (external link, opens in a new window), more than 123 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide in 2024. Around 40 per cent of them, a total of 49 million, are children and young people under the age of 18. As children and young people make up only a third of the world's population, they are overrepresented among those seeking protection. 2.3 million children were born while fleeing between 2018 and 2024.

More Information

More information in the FAQ Flight.

To FAQ Flight

What Is the Situation for Children and Young People Who Are Fleeing Their Homes?

Children and young people are particularly vulnerable and at risk because they are exposed to many dangers and traumatic situations while fleeing. Many of them are unaccompanied, i.e. without an adult companion. Others travel with their families or with acquaintances. Although the EU Member States have committed themselves to protecting all children under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the special rights of minors are not being upheld at the EU's external borders, e.g. in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

How are rights of children and young people fleeing their homes being violated?
Children and young people are exposed to physical, psychological, social and bureaucratic violence as a result of the EU border regime. They experience abuse and violence at the hands of border officials, live in precarious conditions in camps or improvised shelters, often have no access to education or adequate food, are separated from their families or have no one to accompany them.

What are the consequences for children and young people?
Traumatic experiences are particularly difficult for young people to cope with. They tend to feel responsible for things they cannot influence and develop feelings of guilt. Anxiety, depression, sleep disorders and years of psychosomatic suffering are the consequences and can have a lasting impact on a child's development. The uncertainty about their own future also weighs heavily on young people seeking protection.

What Is the Situation like for Young People Seeking Protection on the So-Called Balkan Route?

Photo of a person wearing an orange shirt. Only the lower half of the face is visible.

In the following videos, Elika, M* and Jihad talk about their life situations.

Elika is a young woman from Iran. She talks about her everyday life in Bosnia, which is marked by violence, insecurity and instability, without the possibility of attending school.

M* is a young man from Syria. He talks about how he travelled alone and unaccompanied through Serbia, repeatedly experiencing violence at the hands of border officials and being relocated to remote areas.

Jihad is a young man from Syria. He talks about his attempts to cross the border fence between Serbia and Hungary and the brutal violence of the border guards.

Portrait: Elika - Bosnia

Portrait: M* - Serbia

Portrait: Jihad - Serbia

Background

This video is part of the exhibition “Voices from the border” by borderline-europe (external link, opens in a new window). The exhibition is a collection of 15 short portraits of people detained at Europe's external borders and residents of these border regions.

To the Exhibition: "Voices from the border"

Sources

Using and Sharing

Article by Lina Urbat and Alina Kopp. Online editing by Alina Kopp.

This article is published under the Creative Commons License: Attribution – 4.0 International CC BY 4.0 (external link, opens in a new window)! Feel free to share, use, or adapt this article for your educational work. Photo by Rasande Tyskar (external link, opens in a new window) under the license CC BY-NC 2.0 (external link, opens in a new window)via Flickr. Don't forget to publish it under the same conditions and mention L!NX and the authors!