Building Bridges for Every Child: Reception, Care, and Services to Support Unaccompanied Children in the United States

This report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) discusses the reception and care of unaccompanied migrant and asylum-seeking children worldwide but focuses primarily on migrants coming to the U.S. There are an estimated 33 million international migrant children globally, 12.6 million of which are refugees and 1.5 million are asylum-seeking. Nearly 500,000 unaccompanied children sought protection in Europe or the U.S. This report is based on the founding of the Building Bridges Initiative and the resulting work to protect unaccompanied child migrants in the U.S. Launched by UNICEF and UNICEF USA, the initiative brings together child rights and protection, immigration, and child welfare, with the goal of raising awareness on the needs of child migrant protection within U.S. borders. These migrants leave their countries of origin due to violence, climate disasters, poverty, and food insecurity. They continue to face untold horrors during their journeys through Central America and Mexico to the U.S., facing detention, deprivation and discrimination throughout their travels north. These migrants should not face detention and further child rights violations upon reaching the U.S. border.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. essentially shut its borders to asylum seekers citing public health concerns. As a result, more than 159,000 people, including an estimated 8,800 unaccompanied minors, were expelled from the U.S. into Northern Mexico and Central America. These migrants were not given access to immigration processing, including asylum, or adequate protections. The United States has a significant history of providing asylum to children in need and advocating for their placement in protective family care. The report encourages U.S. policymakers to shift back towards this model, ending child detention at the border, minimizing institutional care, and scaling up family- and community-based reception. The report provides numerous recommendations on ways to provide child-sensitive care and maximizing child rights through migration to the U.S. and the asylum-seeking process.