95% of these child movements are explained by floods and storms, indicates the Unicef report published Friday October 6. China and the Philippines are among the countries with “the highest absolute number of child displacements”.
“In six years, climate-related disasters have led to 43.1 million internal displacements of children in 44 countries”which corresponds to “around 20,000 child movements every day”, warns Unicef on Friday October 6 in a report. In this document, the United Nations Children’s Fund provides the first global analysis of the number of children forced from their homes between 2016 and 2021 due to floods, storms, droughts or fires. forests.
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95% of these child movements were caused by floods and storms between 2016 and 2021. Droughts have “caused more than 1.3 million internal displacements of children”while “forest fires triggered 810,000 child displacements, more than a third of which occurred in 2020 alone.”
More than 110 million children displaced in the next 30 years
China and the Philippines are among the countries that recorded “the largest absolute number of displacements of children, due to their exposure to extreme weather conditions, their large child population and advances in early warning and evacuation capabilities”. Unicef also specifies that “relative to the size of the child population, children living in small island states, such as Dominica and Vanuatu, were most affected by the storms, while children in Somalia and South Sudan were the most affected by floods”. Furthermore, according to the report, “Canada, Israel and the United States are the countries having recorded the greatest number of displacements following fires”.
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Unicef warns that “As the effects of climate change intensify, so will climate-related displacement.”. The Director General of Unicef Catherine Russell believes that if we have “tools and knowledge needed to meet this growing challenge”the action is done “much too slowly”.
“We must redouble our efforts to prepare communities, protect children at risk of displacement, and support those who are already uprooted.”
Catherine Russell, Director General of Unicef
The United Nations Children’s Fund also estimates that “River flooding could cause the displacement of nearly 96 million children over the next thirty years”, “while cyclonic winds and storm surges could displace 10.3 million and 7.2 million children respectively over the same period”. Unicef fears that these projections, which it already judges “worrying”prove “higher” facing “more frequent and severe extreme weather events.”
Take “urgent measures”
Faced with this terrible observation, Unicef calls on governments, but also “development partners and the private sector” to take “urgent measures” to protect children and young people at risk of displacement. The UN agency therefore recommends adapting education, health, nutrition, social protection and child protection services “shock-proof, transferable and inclusive”. Unicef also pleads for “prioritize children and young people in action plans and funding relating to natural disasters and climate change, in humanitarian and development policies and in investments aimed at preparing for this future which is already taking shape”.