The general situation of refugee children in view of the UN-Convention on the Rights of the Child and their status in the Federal Republic of Germany

Refugee children suffer from war or other forms of persecution in their countries of origin, many even continue to suffer human rights violations in the countries in which they seek asylum. Around half of the world's refugees are children, yet their rights and special supporting and protection needs as children are frequently neglected. The human rights violations that force children to flee from their homes are only a part of the hardships for many child refugees. Even after travelling across an international border to seek refuge, they remain vulnerable to hazardous labour exploitation, denial of education, physical abuse, routine detention, sexual abuse, cross-border attacks, militarization of refugee camps, and recruitment as soldiers.
The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the circumstances of refugee children, the UN-Convention on the Rights of the Child and describe the asylum-juridical contact with refugee children in the Federal Republic of Germany and above all examine, whether and to which extent this contact is contradictory to the central concern of the UN-Convention on the Rights of the Child.

B) The circumstances of refugee children
Adolescent- and child refugees are differentiated into accompanied and unaccompanied. Accompanied are those who flee with their parents and siblings, members of their family or other important bonding figures and role models. It is assumed that currently around 100,000 unaccompanied minors exist as refugees in Europe.
Children and adolescents are the most vulnerable and in need of support and protection. When children are removed from their normal cultural, economical and social environment, it may generate serious psychological problems such as a disruption of the emotional development and a profound sense of disorientation due to loss of role models like parents and relatives.

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