What does UNHCR do to help unaccompanied child refugees find their families?
For UNHCR’s purposes, an unaccompanied minor is one “who is separated from both parents and for whose care no person can be found who by law or custom has primary responsibility.” The number of unaccompanied child refugees varies widely with the causes and conditions of exodus. However, as a rule of thumb, scholars have estimated that unaccompanied children comprise 2 to 5 percent of a refugee population. (Though these numbers appear to fit the Rwandan(bad link) exodus, they fail to match with Bhutanese refugees in Nepal, for example). Typically, UNHCR works closely with other agencies to ensure that unaccompanied children are identified and registered, and their families traced. In the Rwanda/Burundi crisis area, for example, UNHCR has been working with UNICEF, ICRC, Food for the Hungry and Save the Children (UK), as well as many other NGOs, to do cross-border tracing for these children. A regional, centralized database has been established, to register, track and match separated fami
