A/HRC/11/7
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without children, but subsequently plan to bring them to a host country. Therefore, it is important
that States of origin develop policies and strengthen bilateral, regional and international
cooperation to reduce the number of unaccompanied children seeking to join their parents or
other family members in host countries through regular channels.
2. Children on the move
52. Children on the move are migrant children taking an active part in the migration process,
particularly at the passage and arrival stages in countries of transit and destination. They may be
found, inter alia, migrating with their family members or independently, to seek opportunities at
both the educational and employment levels. They may also be found entering host countries to
rejoin migrant members of the family, being relocated or sent by families to stay with relatives or
friends in third countries or, as the Special Rapporteur has documented, sent by
family members to find work abroad and send part of their earnings home
(E/CN.4/2005/85/Add.1).
53. Children may also be forcibly on the move, such as when falling prey to transnational
organized crime and exploitation networks. The Special Rapporteur has received reports about
growing numbers of trafficked children,33 which in some instances is a consequence of
oppressive or abusive home conditions, poverty or the absence of economic opportunities in the
home region.34
54. Unaccompanied and separated children on the move may face greater vulnerabilities and
risks35 including discrimination, sexual and other forms of violence, and being coerced into
begging, drug dealing or prostitution by criminals or criminal organizations
(E/CN.4/2005/85/Add.3).
33
For example, in Italy, trafficked minors made up a third of irregular arrivals in 2000 and
approximately 15,000 unaccompanied minors arrived in the United States that year. See
Commission on Human Security, Human Security Now, New York, 2003, available at
www.humansecurity-chs.org/finalreport/English/FinalReport.pdf.
34
See Jayati Ghosh, “Migration and gender empowerment: recent trends and emerging issues”.
Human development research paper, April 2009, available at: http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/
global/hdr2009/papers/HDRP_2009_4.pdf.
35
See “Population mobility and AIDS”, UNAIDS, February 2001, available at
http://data.unaids.org/Publications/IRC-pub02/JC513-PopMob-TU_en.pdf. According to the
World Health Organization (WHO), large numbers of migrants die each year while being
smuggled by land or sea, and smuggled migrants on the move may face hardships, including
starvation and psychologically challenging circumstances. See Helena Nygren-Krug,
“International Migration, Health and Human Rights”, Health and Human Rights Publication
Series, No. 4, WHO, 2003.