For Better Implementation of Migrant Children’s Rights in South Africa

This report outlines the situation facing children who migrate across international borders to South Africa. The report begins by outlining the policy framework that should guide migrant children’s access to rights in South Africa. This section points to a well developed legal and policy framework for securing the rights of migrant children regardless of their documentation.

The second section of the report reviews existing studies on child migration with a view to identifying children’s access to their rights as well as pointing to gaps in information. The research on child migrants indicates very poor implementation of the legal and policy framework and significant abuses of migrant children’s rights. In particular, children are often left behind when caregivers migrate and face a range of vulnerabilities associated with this. In addition, children are migrants in their own right and the existing research indicates that, where children migrate alone, they are particularly vulnerable to exploitative working conditions, violence and denial of basic rights. Migrant children’s access to basic health and education is extremely compromised and there is evidence of widespread violence and abuse against them – very often by the state authorities whose duty it is to protect them.

Furthermore, there is an indication from the research that children who live outside of the major urban centres are particularly vulnerable. There is a lack of capacity for intervention with child migrants in South Africa. Many of the migrant rights organisations that exist do not specifically address the rights of children and many children’s organisations lack the knowledge on migrant children’s rights to intervene effectively. Access to rights is almost entirely facilitated by NGOs in South Africa with migrant children having very limited direct access to government departments and services. This report makes recommendations for intervention by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other partners for strengthening migrant children’s access to basic rights in South Africa.