Child Refugee & Migrant Crisis
Current policies prevent families from accessing their legal right to protection in the U.S. as they seek asylum.
Working with partners, UNICEF provides psychosocial support programs to help children recover from the terrors of war.
After nearly five years of conflict, Yemen's children need health care, nutrition, safe water, education and more. UNICEF is there to help.
Central Americans targeted by gangs face a difficult choice: leave everything behind and start over, or stay put and risk death.
"We are barely breathing," said a mother of three. "Our lives have been destroyed."
Escalating conflict has displaced at least 160,000 people. UNICEF and partners are reaching families with emergency assistance.
As violence escalates in northeastern Syria, many children are at imminent risk of injury, death and displacement.
A new photo exhibition illustrates the physical, emotional & psychological impact of migration on the world's children.
UNICEF-supported clubs give adolescents a forum to discuss personal safety, early marriage and the dangers of drugs and trafficking.
Violence forces families and children to flee Honduras every day. UNICEF is working to make the country safer for all.
The youngest victims of Myanmar's ethnic cleansing campaign are missing out on what only education can offer: a chance for a brighter future
In Yemen, an Emergency Cash Transfer Project is helping 1.5 million families cover basic food, health, nutrition and education needs.
Unwanted, exploited and abused: UNICEF is providing lifesaving assistance to children stuck in limbo in the Syrian desert.
Young Rohingya refugees and members of the host community in Bangladesh are learning valuable life skills to lift them out of poverty.
UNICEF is stationed on the routes migrant children travel to protect them — especially those who are on their own — and their rights.
Thousands of children and families are at risk from flooding and landslides. UNICEF is on the ground providing urgently needed assistance.
FAQs: Here's how UNICEF and UNICEF USA are working to support and protect migrating children every step of the way.
Building on decades of experience around the world, UNICEF is standing up for the rights of children seeking sanctuary in the U.S.
A toddler dies on the border as reports of migrant children held in unsafe U.S. facilities spark demands for action to keep children safe.
It took about a year, but Mario, a teen from El Salvador, was eventually recognized as a refugee by the government thanks to UNICEF.
Child migrants and refugees have to leave almost everything behind. A treasured object from home can help preserve memories — and hope.
School is a place to heal and grow strong for traumatized children growing up in Jordan's Azraq and Za'atari refugee camps.
Displaced by violence, Syrian children growing up in Jordan's Za'atari refugee camp cling to beloved mementos of a peaceful past.
Little Saba's health stabilized after treatment at a UNICEF-sponsored therapeutic feeding center in Hudaydah, Yemen.
Conflict and crisis have driven them from their homes, but these refugee dads are determined to see their children grow up healthy and safe.
Ten years after fleeing conflict and insecurity in the DRC, a loving father is nurturing his young family in South Africa.
UNICEF Mexico’s Gema Jimenez helps Central American migrant children build resilience on their difficult journeys toward a brighter future.
UNICEF is working to protect and support ethnic Muslim Rohingya families crowded into refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Millions of Syrians spent another Ramadan praying for the day they can go home again. UNICEF is on the ground helping.
Millions in Yemen spent yet another Ramadan praying for peace and struggling for survival. UNICEF is on the ground helping.
More than 24 million people in Yemen — including at least 11 million children — need humanitarian assistance. UNICEF is there to help.
A teenager & her family left Venezuela for Brazil. UNICEF learning spaces are making the transition to a new education system less daunting.
With new groups arriving every day, UNICEF is amping up support for migrants, refugees and their host communities in Colombia.
With two-thirds of the country food insecure, observing the holy month is no simple matter. UNICEF is there to help.
They may be far from home, but Syrians still spend Ramadan fasting and praying and hoping for better times ahead.
Across Syria, families struggle to maintain traditional celebrations, to give their children a sense of normalcy.
Despite the difficulties, ethnic Muslim Rohingya refugees are spending their holy month fasting and praying.
After four years of war, blasts like the one that killed 14 Yemeni schoolchildren are hardly the only lethal threats facing families.
Uprooted families from Central America share their dreams, and the treasured objects they carry on their journey.
While the U.S. reels from a resurgence of measles, communities in Yemen are mobilizing to immunize and protect their children from disease.
Displaced by Syria's 8-year-long civil war, young students resume their educations with help from UNICEF and Educate A Child.
Over 2.5 million Syrian children are currently displaced by violence. Here are three ways you can help these refugee children.
UNICEF's Amaluna Youth Economic Engagement program is giving 30,000 young people in Jordan hope for the future.
UNICEF and Educate a Child's Self-Learning Program helps Syrian children resume their education so they can reach their full potential.
After years of brutal civil war, CAR is in crisis. 1.5 million children need humanitarian assistance. UNICEF and partners are there to help.
UNICEF's helping to free child soldiers and other children recruited in CAR. Learn more about the children and donate here.
Once severely malnourished and near death, 3-year-old Pierre bounced back to life thanks to UNICEF and the miracle of therapeutic food.
UNICEF is the global leader in RUTF procurement, purchasing and distributing 80 percent of the world's supply.
The United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent teamed up to deliver lifesaving supplies to displaced Syrians in Rukban makeshift camp.
Migrant children should always be protected, stay with their famililes and be kept out of detention centers.
Iraq's next generation is scarred by a brutal war. UNICEF and partners are giving them the tools they need to resume their lives.
On a freezing journey from Venezuela, hardship and hope for a migrant family.
For parents who must choose between putting food on the table and heating their family's tent, the winter gear shipment was a lifesaver.
A resurgence of brutal violence has devastated CAR. Children and families are in urgent need of protection and humanitarian aid.
Economic and social collapse has separated many Venezuelan children from family and dreams. With help, they can reconnect with both.
As temperatures plummet, children and families uprooted by conflict and poverty are among the hardest hit.
Desperate to feed their families, more parents in Yemen are marrying off their young daughters in exchange for a cash dowry.
A child is a child. UNICEF works with partners to help and protect migrant and refugee children every step of the way.
Children and young people are entitled to the same basic human rights wherever they are, regardless of borders.
Young Yemenis picked up video cameras to record children's stories of growing up in a country torn apart by war.
Children did not start the war in Yemen, but they are paying the highest price. UNICEF is helping injured children get their lives back.
All children deserve to be treated with kindness and respect, especially those who have been forced from their homes by poverty and violence
Thousands of children have been separated from their parents since conflict began in 2013. UNICEF is making families whole again.
Yemen's brutal civil war has destroyed the country's economy and created a devastating humanitarian crisis.
UNICEF and partners are working to provide children growing up in war-torn Yemen with a quality education and hope for the future.
UNICEF and partners use rapid response teams to deliver emergency supplies and aid to conflict-affected areas of South Sudan.
Displaced by civil war as a child, Salva Dut founded a nonprofit that's building communities and helping to strengthen a young nation.
Winter brings freezing temperatures to many parts of the Middle East and North Africa — putting already vulnerable children at great risk.
UNICEF is working with partners to support and protect children and families affected by Venezuela's profound economic and social crisis.
More than anything, Yemen's children wish the fighting would stop, so they could just be children again.
The situation is dire for families trapped in the Syrian desert. An interagency convoy is delivering badly needed supplies and medical care.
Every 10 minutes, a child in Yemen dies of preventable causes, including malnutrition. UNICEF and partners need your help to save lives now.
UNICEF is on the ground, providing protection, clean water, sanitation and hygiene supplies.
Some of the world's most vulnerable children are watching their homeland crumble.
UNICEF Executive Director Fore urges swift action to save and protect Yemen's children.
Three years of intense civil war have pushed underdeveloped, overlooked Yemen to the brink of collapse. Peace is the only way forward.
UNICEF USA board member Dolores Rice Gahan reflects on her recent visit to a Rohingya refugee camp.
As Yemen's health system crumbles, mobile vaccination teams are going the extra mile to reach children with lifesaving health services.
A UNICEF Child Alert explores why migrants flee Central America for the U.S. and Mexico, calling for the protection of their children.
What would it take to leave your home behind? Central Americans heading North in search of safety share their stories in a new documentary.
Extreme levels of organized crime and gang violence are facts of life for many children growing up scared in Central America.
In Reynosa, Mexico, shelters offer a bed, clothes, food & medical care to migrants headed for the U.S. and others returning home, dejected.
Family separation and detention are bad for children. Please join UNICEF in speaking out to protect refugee and migrant children.
Pervasive violence and poverty drive Central Americans to seek safety elsewhere. UNICEF is working to improve conditions at home.
Driven from their homes by a brutal military crackdown, Rohingya refugee children use art to share their stories and dreams for the future.
Recovering from trauma, Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh are getting a chance to just be kids again.
Fresh waves of violence in Syria's brutal civil war will place the lives of more than 1 million children at imminent risk.
Born as her family was fleeing civil war in Somalia, 20-year-old Hamdia Ahmed is determined to give back to those who are less fortunate.
One year ago, close to a million Rohingya fled violence in Myanmar for Bangladesh. Now a generation of children face uncertain futures.
UNICEF USA President and CEO Caryl M. Stern visited the U.S.-Mexico border to learn more about hardships faced by Central American migrants.
Conditions threaten to worsen in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, now home to the largest refugee camp in the world.
When a young artist volunteers to work with newly arrived migrant children, they all find joy in the magic of art.
Children uprooted from their homes are vulnerable to new dangers. UNICEF has a plan to keep them safe.
Terrorized by the Myanmar military, the Rohingya fled to Bangladesh. Now monsoon rains are destroying their refugee camps.
Separation and detention rob children of their childhoods and cause toxic stress.
Children forced from their homes by poverty and violence have the right to be protected and supported at every step along the way.
The number of babies born as a result of sexual violence is unknown, but UNICEF is ensuring each one gets the best possible care.
In Jordan's Azraq Refugee Camp, UNICEF-trained counselors use the power of music to help traumatized Syrian children find joy again.
With food, medicine and safe water already in short supply, a devastated nation prepares for a crippling blockade.
Escaping ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, Rohingya refugees now face hunger in Bangladesh. UNICEF is there with lifesaving nutritional support.
A reported poison gas attack in rebel-held Douma has killed at least 42 people in their homes and injured more than 500.
Seeking to "empower a new generation," the Clooney Foundation for Justice promotes educational opportunity for Syrian refugee children.
Fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar, the Rohingya face a new danger in Bangladesh: waterborne diseases.
12-year-old Umme and her family fled to Bangladesh. Now the monsoon season has begun, bringing new dangers.
After seven years of civil war, UNICEF's youngest Goodwill Ambassador, Muzoon Almellehan, pleads "Don't give up on Syria."
A cash transfer program organized by UNICEF and partners allows refugees to decide for themselves how best to allocate resources.
A serious shortfall in funding for winter supplies and assistance threatens 1.5 million children.
For the more than 3 million children born in Yemen since the civil war escalated in 2015, staying alive is a daily struggle.
How UNICEF and partners are working to address the urgent needs of Rohingya refugee children and their families.
In a nation gripped by famine and cholera, more than 11 million Yemeni children are in acute need of humanitarian assistance.
Relief efforts face hurdles in a country already reeling from famine and the world's biggest cholera epidemic on record.
In Bangladesh, a baby begins life in a camp for Rohingya refugees fleeing brutal violence in neighboring Myanmar.
In a new report, UNICEF warns that the hundreds of thousands of children who have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh face a 'perilous future.'
CNN journalist Arwa Damon's nonprofit, INARA, provides life-changing medical care for ill and injured children growing up in conflict zones.
After a special mission to meet migrant children in Mexico, UNICEF Next Generation got busy fundraising. And then the earthquakes hit.
Thousands of young people fleeing sub-Saharan Africa are being abused, exploited and arbitrarily detained in Libya.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya — mostly women and children — have fled ethnic violence for Bangladesh, and need help urgently.
Uganda's refugee policies are among the world's most compassionate, but South Sudanese fleeing war may overwhelm this small country.
Iraq Report: As fighting escalates, UNICEF emergency water is essential for families and children in liberated sections of war-torn Mosul.
Amidst the world's fastest growing refugee crisis, these mothers will not let anything stop them from building a future for their children.
"The 7-year-old girl shot by a sniper while getting water. The 9-year-old fatally slashed by shrapnel. I never get used to it."
Fleeing Syria's brutal civil war, Mustafa, a Syrian teenager, takes a dangerous journey to a brighter future.
Refugees from South Sudan are pouring into Uganda to escape violence and famine. An up-close account of UNICEF's humanitarian response.
The Play for Syria team has one prize in mind: a brighter future for the country's children.
For six years the children of Syria have experienced devastating conflict. Hear one girl's wish for her country's future — in her own words.
This Silicon Valley entrepreneur used social media to raise over $100,000 and show how each of us can make a difference.
Smuggling children from Africa to Europe has become a billion dollar industry. This is what happened on Pati's Journey to Italy.
The brutal civil war has forced more than 1.8 million children out-of-school, but many are still determined to learn.
In the world's youngest country, 5.5 million people — almost half the population — will face severe food shortages this year.
Two refugees, two generations, one story. Our President and CEO Caryl M. Stern urges you to watch this video.
The Refuge Project by Magna Carta features heartbreaking accounts of loss from the front lines of the European refugee crisis.
Our President and CEO on the refugee crisis — 28 million children have been uprooted by conflict. We must see them as CHILDREN FIRST.
As temperatures drop below freezing, UNICEF aims to reach 2.5 million Syrian children with warm winter gear.
For five years the children of Syria have endured devastating conflict. Hear how they are doing — in their own words.
UNICEF helped free 1,775 children in 2015, but fears that growing violence is fueling a new surge in recruitment.
Put children first and take on a crisis that now affects nearly 50 million children.
Despite a new wave of deadly attacks, UNICEF remains committed to providing Syrian children with critical aid.
Read the compelling story of how, on the eve of the United Nations refugee summit, we joined to tell world leaders to put children first.
Learn the stories of six Syrian children who traveled across conflict lines for their education, and how UNICEF is supporting their efforts.
Here's why thousands of children are willing to risk an extremely dangerous journey.
50 million children uprooted: Let's tell world leaders to put them first in their response to the refugee and migrant crisis.
Learn about the struggles of South Sudan's children eager to learn in the face of challenges. Donate today and help South Sudan's children.
South Sudan's brutal civil war has forced 1.8 million children out of school, but so many are still determined to get an education
A new UNICEF report calls attention to 50 million children forced from home. This is the story of one such child — Alexis.
Read UNICEF’s report on the thousands of central American refugee and migrant children that face insurmountable odds to reach the United States every month.
Learn about the lasting impact of the Refugee Olympic Team that competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Their perseverance during a large global refugee crisis is inspiring.
Meet Syrian refugee Rami Anis who fled to Istanbul and then Belgium as a child. He will swim for the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
"The common belief is that migrants and refugees are coming to get jobs," says UNICEF's Chris Tidey. "We find that's a myth."
Meet South Sudan refugee Yiech Pur Biel who went from training at a Kenyan refugee camp to competing on the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Learn about how 18 year old Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini overcame extreme hardships to swim on the Refugee Olympic Team at the Rio Olympics.
Meet Yusra Mardini and Yiech Pur Biel, who were forced to flee their homes and are now competing on the Refugee Olympic Team at the Rio Olympics.
The cast of the Broadway classic Fiddler On The Roof forged a creative campaign supporting UNICEF's work for child migrants and refugees.
UNICEF launches "Unfairy Tales," an animated video series based on true stories of child refugees.
UNICEF calls on all parties to protect children. The effort to help escaping civilians is severely underfunded.
UNICEF launches "Unfairy Tales," an animated video series based on the true stories of child refugees.
UNICEF launches "Unfairy Tales," an animated video series based on the true stories of child refugees.
For five years the children of Syria have endured devastating conflict. Hear how they are doing — in their own words.
For five years the children of Syria have endured devastating conflict. Hear how they are doing — in their own words.
For five years the children of Syria have endured devastating conflict. Hear how they are doing — in their own words.
For five years the children of Syria have endured devastating conflict. Hear how they are doing — in their own words.
More than 120 humanitarian organizations and U.N. agencies urge people around the world to call for an end to the crisis.
From Syria to the shores of the Mediterranean and beyond, UNICEF is working where children are cold and struggling.
"Society should be measured, is measured, by how we treat our children."
From Syria to Europe, children are in urgent need. Here's how you can help them today.
Remember that children don't choose the countries they're born into or the conflicts around them.
Who is running, why they are running, and how you can help.
Armed groups in the Central African Republic agree to end child recruitment and release all children in their forces.
UPDATE September 3: The number of Syrian child refugees has reached 2 million.
Winter Storm Zina (Huda) brought heavy snow to refugee camps throughout the Middle East, creating new hardships for displaced families.
900,000 Iraqi children have been driven from their homes since January.
UNICEF builds a brand new operating wing at the hospital in Berberati.
After two-month siege ends, a convoy brings food, water and medical supplies.
50,000 may die by year's end without treatment. Here's how we can help.
Iraqi families are still on the run in search of safety for their children.
Conflict in South Sudan has turned into a severe food crisis.
Inside Syria's Nawrouz refugee camp, where families have fled violence in Iraq.
Violence in northern Iraq threatens thousands of families.
No child born in the C.A.R. since March 2013 has a birth certificate.
Sectarian conflict has forced more than 1.1 million Iraqis from their homes.
Up to 500,000 Iraqi people have been newly displaced.
2.3 million children have been affected by violence in the Central African Republic.
Learn more about the conflict's long-term impact on children.
The devastating impact on children of three years of conflict in Syria.
Funding needed now for Syria, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.
Civilians were evacuated—but many more remained trapped.
UNICEF has been providing supplies since the conflict reached crisis levels.
Violence interrupts our call with UNICEF's CAR country office.
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake: "It could go over the edge."
UNICEF's Emergency Response Team is working to help 2.3 million children.
Violence has displaced thousands in CAR and South Sudan.
Another 100 metric tons of humanitarian goods are expected.
Many Syrian refugees fled their homes unprepared for a bitter winter.
UNICEF and partners are immunizing over 20 million kids in the region.
30,000 have sought safety in Bossangoa, a provincial capital.
Water is a key part of the largest humanitarian operation in history.