More than 3.7 million migrant children do not have access to education

As a result of poverty and a high rate of violence in Latin America and the Caribbeanaround 3.7 million girls, boys and adolescents are in the process of migration and displacement.

Those who migrate are forced to interrupt their studies, as well as face multiple obstacles in accessing and continuing education, whether in transit or host countries.

Faced with this problem, member organizations Latin American and Caribbean Regional Education Groupformed by Save the Children UNICEF, UNESCO and Plan International and other entities, launch a campaign “Education without borders: I study here or there” which seeks to make visible the educational crisis experienced by children and adolescents in a situation of mobility, while promoting their access and permanence in educational services, and publicizing the positive impact that it brings to the host community on children and adolescents in a situation of human mobility have access to this right.

The campaign “Education without limits: I learn here or there” will have resources and tools aimed at providing children, adolescents and their families, host communities, teachers and educational staff with accurate information about educational routes, resources, mechanisms and protocols available to provide continuity of training processes children and adolescents in a situation of mobility in the region.

The Education Without Limits campaign comes at a crucial moment in which migration movements in the region have grown exponentially. Every day there are thousands of children and adolescents who are in a situation of mobility, facing multiple challenges, including access to education.

With this campaign, we are trying to promote access to education and sustainability as a human right of children and adolescents who migrate, he pointed out. Victoria Ward, Regional Director of Save the Children for Latin America and the Caribbean.

IN Latin America and the Caribbean one out of five refugees or migrants is a boy or girl, minors who had to leave school, but by crossing the border, many did not have the opportunity to continue studying and found themselves trapped in exclusion, poverty and violence.

The campaign we are launching today wants to break this vicious cycle through education. The most vulnerable children fleeing their countries can contribute to the development of transit and receiving communities, but only if they have access to more inclusive and quality education services,” said Garry Conille, UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Claudia Uribe, Director of the Regional Office of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO Santiago) He stressed that “the region can spare no effort to remove any obstacle that prevents all boys and girls in a situation of mobility from being fully integrated into the national education systems of their host countries.”

Girls and adolescents represent about 20% of the flow of female human mobility in the region, facing additional obstacles in accessing education due to the responsibilities and roles assigned to girls and women in the home, gender-based violence, child and adolescent pregnancy and early marriage, and communities worsen are in crisis situations, hindering their access to education, their learning processes, quality, transition and completion of education,” he said. Débora Cobar – Regional Director of Plan International for Latin America and the Caribbean.