ACERWC
African Committee of Experts on
the Rights & Welfare of the Child
excludes not only irregular migrant children, but also asylum seekers and refugees who may not
meet the requirements. Hence, States child protection system must recognise the fact that for
children on the move – including asylum seekers, refugees, and migrant–lack of birth registration
may result in statelessness, especially when such documentation is required in order to prove
family relations or place of birth.
5.3 Lack of access to education and economic opportunities
Children on the move may not have the chance to enjoy the right to education. Where they lack
documentation, they may be deprived access to rights like education.393 Children on the move may
also not be able to attend school because of language barrier and in some circumstances because
of xenophobia.394 Child labour also deprives many children on the move access to education.395
Some strides have been made with respect to education in North Africa; efforts which could
serve as good practices elsewhere on the continent. In Tunisia and Algeria, for instance, children
on the move have access to free education. Tunisia tracks, through its bureau of statistics, a
number of indicators related to children on the move registered in public schools are collected
annually to be able to assess the challenges faced by children on the move in the education
sector. Such data includes for instance integration into the school environment, forms of learning
difficulties, etc. In Algeria, a partnership between the Ministry of Education and NGOs since 2015
has contributed to removing all restrictions that have so far hampered the schooling of migrant
children with an ‘irregular’ status (i.e. certificate of permanent address, birth certificates, etc.)
and has helped close the information gap. Many the chidren were, for instance, not aware of the
right of their children to schooling. Despite having access to this basic right, children on the move
enrolled in schools in North Africa continue to struggle mainly due to language.
Access to education and health services continue to be a key challenge in the Great Lakes
Region. Further compounded by the poor capacity of countries in the region, children on the move
often find themselves out of school and exposed to several diseases and malnutrition. For children
in camps, access to education remains a challenge. Recent figures from Chad, for instance,
indicate that 61% of children in camps do not have access to schools and an additional 7% only
have partial access to schools.396 In 2016, 15,846 Burundian children in Rwanda and Tanzania were
out of schools.397 A number of reasons could be attributed to this; including absence of school in
the area, school closures, dangerous roads to reach the school, expensive school registration fee,
expensive transport, lack of teachers, distance, etc.398
For children residing in neighboring countries or countries in the region, access to education
was closely linked to the host country’s migration and asylum policy, particularly with respect to
unaccompanied and separated minors. The 2014 court case involving South Africa and 8 Congolese
children exposed some of the host countries legal limitations. In this particular case, children
were not allowed to register due to the legal limbo they found themselves in with respect to their
393
394
395
396
397
398
72
Updated Regional Framework for the Protection of South Sudanese and Sudanese Refugee
Children: Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda 2015-2017 p 3.
UNICEF, Uprooted: The Growing Crisis for Refugee and Migrant Children,
September 2016 p 40.
ILO, Global Estimates of Child Labour: Results and trends, 2012–2016 p 47.
IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix. Tchad, Region du Lac. Fevrier 2018. Pg 24
UNICEF. Burundian refugees: Humanitarian Action for Children. 2016.
https://www.unicef.org/appeals/files/HAC_2016_Burundi_Refugees.pdf
IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix. Tchad.