Mapping Children on the Move within Africa number of children on the move continue to be invisible to official immigration and displacement statistics.’505 For instance, in its Concluding Observations of the review of South Africa in 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed its concern over “the lack of accurate and disaggregated data on migrant, asylum-seeking and refugee children, including those who are unaccompanied and/or undocumented, as well as on child victims of trafficking”. 506 Such observation could be said about the majority of countries as demonstrated by the data collection challenges of this study. Where available, data is scattered. Within the AU family, there is no systematic way of recording such data. 6.4 Policy blind-spots One of the key points emerging from the analysis of the scope of movement of children shows that most of them move within the borders of the continent. Children move because they are forced (refugees, internal displacements) or to seek opportunities, desired or not (e.g. while some move in pursuit of education of economic opportunities, others may move because of the choice of their parents for instance to delegate their upbringing to a relative within or outside the country). Yet, efforts aimed at children on the move often focus on forced movement leaving child protection in the situation where the child has a choice as a policy blind spot. Acknowledging the different reasons why children move could have important implications on policy choices. One size-fits-all approach cannot address all the nuances and specific patterns of children’s movement within the African Continent. Various factors that drive movement of children within the continent should be taken into account in trying to understand and addressing challenges that children on the move in Africa face. Their profiles, needs, age, sex, nationality, religion, ethnicity, their accompanied or unaccompanied status are important to take into consideration while enacting laws, policies and programmes on mobility of children in Africa. Also, the one size-fits-all approach may fail to take into consideration the best interests of children in different circumstances. As pointed out above, in General Comment No. 14 the Committee on the Rights of the Child also notes that child’s best interest should be undertaken in each individual case, in view of specific circumstances of the child. The circumstances relate to among others, sex, age, belonging to a minority group and disability.507 The implementation of the best interests principle in movement-related measures, calls for specific and systematic 505. As above. 506. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Concluding observations on the second periodic report of South Africa. CRC/C/ZAF/CO/2. 27 October 2016. Pg 19. <http://www.refworld.org/publisher,CRC,,ZAF,587ce86b4,0.html>. 507. Para 48. 89