Today is Migrants' Day. Amidst the celebratory posters, well-intentioned messages and wishes, there is one fact that is often glossed over: Refugee child laborers.
It is not only people who cross borders; poverty, precarity and exploitation come with them.
For refugee children, migration often means the suspension of childhood. Workshops instead of school, shifts instead of play, the anxiety of “saving the present” instead of dreaming of the future...
In a country where they do not speak the language, they are employed in unregistered jobs as the heaviest and cheapest labor. Because they cannot object. Because they are seen as “replaceable”.
These children are made to work not only because they are poor, but also because they are refugees. Their identity makes them more vulnerable.
Their names are not recorded in work accidents, doors are closed in their faces when they seek their rights.
This situation, which is often justified with tales of “contributing to the family” or “holding on to life”, is in reality one of the harshest forms of modern child labor.
Migrants“ Day should be a day not only to remember migrants but also to talk about the inequalities that deepen with migration. Refugee child labor is not an ”integration problem" but a clear violation of rights.
The solution should be sought not in aid parcels, but in public education, social protection, supervision and political will.
Today, it is not enough to wish for refugee children. No Migrants' Day has real meaning without confronting the system that employs them.