A/HRC/33/53
46.
Although some Governments in Latin America have participated in special training
sessions and workshops on childhood, migration and human rights, most migration officers
have no personnel assigned exclusively to work with unaccompanied migrant children.
There is almost no local authority or institution in the region that works specifically on that
topic. Despite the fact that legal frameworks to protect migrants and children are well
developed, there are no laws on unaccompanied migrant children as a specific category.
Some countries, including Nicaragua, have no migration policy at all, which means that
responses tend to be instrumental, short-term and uncoordinated.31
47.
In South America, internal migration in Paraguay constitutes a special case. Children
are constantly displaced from rural areas to cities in order to be trafficked for labour
exploitation. This practice, commonly referred to as “criadazgo”, is widespread in Paraguay
and is organized by contractors who pretend to provide protection. Children become
involved in domestic work without any financial compensation, in exchange for shelter,
food, clothing and education. According to the findings of the Permanent Household
Survey, it is estimated that 46,993 children and adolescents (2.5 per cent of all children in
the country) are in a situation of “criadazgo”. Furthermore, authorities have perceived a
strong social legitimization and normalization of the practice.32
48.
In Asia, the labour laws of countries such as India and Nepal allow the exploitation
of child workers by defining 14 years as the beginning of adulthood. Caritas Bangladesh
has reported that employers of children rarely consider the compensation they provide to
child workers or their families as the fulfilment of duties to the children, nor do they see
children as rights holders entitled to the right to fair treatment and compensation.
49.
In India, which has the world’s largest population of children, the migration of
children within states and across state boundaries is increasing. Gender-related issues are
common causes of migration and human rights violations; in India, the main cause of
migration is gender-based discrimination and the low status of women in society, which
results in child marriage, a decline in the ratio of women to men and a division of labour
along traditional gender roles. Migrant girls are increasingly forced, as service providers, to
fulfil the demand for a vast array of personalized services in the entertainment and sex
industry, in domestic work and in the marriage market.33
50.
In South Africa, the number of irregular migrants is difficult to determine; estimates
range between 2.5 million and 7 million. According to IOM, every week about 2,000
irregular migrants, mainly from Mozambique and Zimbabwe, are deported. Some 20 per
cent of them are children. These figures indicate that about 1.6 million migrant children
stay in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
51.
According to the UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Analysis Report
2014, the crisis in South Sudan has led almost half a million people to move. Over 70 per
cent of those people are children who then seek asylum in neighbouring countries like
Ethiopia, Kenya, the Sudan and Uganda. An estimated 35,000 are unaccompanied children.
52.
Children transiting through Zimbabwe lack access to many social services. Once the
children are outside the family environment they are often left by themselves and may be
exposed to hard living conditions. That said, the reception conditions have improved in
recent years as child reception centres have been set up by IOM, UNICEF and the
31
32
33
10
Information provided by Aldeas Infantiles SOS, Nicaragua.
Information provided by Grupo Luna Nueva.
As the ratio of females to males in India continues to decline, young girls are trafficked into the
countryside and sold into marriage.
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