Seoul – The IOM Mission in the Republic of Korea (ROK), with support from the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), hosted a webinar on Protection of Unaccompanied and separated Children (UASC) in Humanitarian Contexts on May 18 May 2022 to broaden the knowledge base on the vulnerabilities and needs of UASC in emergency responses.

The webinar was attended by 70 ROK humanitarian professionals including government officials, NGO personnel and UN staff as well as general public.  

Due to changing nature of conflicts and emergence of new threats, mass human displacement has become a challenging feature of our time. Children are exposed to greater protection risks during and in the aftermath of humanitarian emergencies. Unaccompanied and separated children, in particular, demand the international community’s attention as we all share a safeguarding duty to promote and protect the welfare of all these children who are exacerbating their already acute vulnerability.

Led by Nadia Akmoun, the Senior Protection Officer at the Protection Division of IOM HQ, the webinar provided an inspirational learning opportunity by introducing essentials on the protection of UASC including key concepts, principles, and core standards for intervention. Meanwhile, by highlighting effective tools and mechanisms to ensure adequate protection and assistance for unaccompanied and separated children, this webinar also shared IOM’s needs-based and inclusive experiences in this subject.

“It is important to learn about their practices to approach humanitarian programming for the protection of children, as these are based on decades old global experience and lessons learned responding to children’s needs during crisis, displacement and migration,” said Akmoun.

“Child Protection in humanitarian action is based on child rights and strives to implement concrete measures in humanitarian action to make these rights real for children, ensuing children are protected from the exacerbated risks of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation they are confronted with during crisis, displacement or migration, especially when they’re separated from their families and communities," Akmoun added.

Since 2014, IOM ROK has taken an essential role in providing a wide range of capacity-building support for ROK humanitarian actors with funding support from US Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA).

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For more information, please contact Eunice Jieun KIM, IOM Republic of Korea Mission, Tel.: +82 70 4820 0291, Email: jikim@iom.int