Floods, storms, droughts… climate change disasters displaced 43.1 million children from 2016 to 2021 and this number is only “the tip of the iceberg”, UNICEF warns, underscoring the lack of attention to the problem, which makes the victims “invisible”.

The United Nations Children’s Fund thus refers in its report published yesterday Thursday, among other things, to the trauma suffered by Juana, who was 9 years old in 2020, when the city where she lived in Guatemala was flooded due to cyclones Ita and Yota. Or to young sisters Mia and Maya, who saw their crumbling house become a fire pit in California.

“We moved our things to the road, where we lived for weeks,” described Abdul Azim, a student from Sudan, whose village was flooded in August 2022 and was only accessible by boat.

Statistics on internal displacement due to climate disasters generally do not take age into account, but UNICEF worked in particular with the NGO Internal Displacement Monitoring Center to unpick the data and ensure that these children do not remain “invisible”.

In the period under review, four types of climate change-related disasters (floods, storms, droughts, fires), the frequency and intensity of which are increasing due to global warming, led to 43.1 million displacements of children in 44 countries . 95% was due to floods and storms, according to the text.

A figure that means “about 20,000 displacements of children per day”, Laura Healy, one of the authors of the research, underlined speaking to AFP, stressing that the minor victims are then exposed to multiple risks, from possible separation from their families to their exploitation by human trafficking rings.

The figures refer to the displacement of children, not the number of children displaced. Some children may have been displaced more than once.

Moreover, they do not allow the separation between preventive evacuations of areas and displacement due to extreme weather phenomena.

While they dramatically underestimate displacement due to droughts, which occur at a slower rate and are therefore harder to monitor, they also do not include children who have migrated.

“This is only the tip of the iceberg, based on the available data. The reality is that with the impact of climate change and better monitoring of displacement due to slower-moving weather events, the number of uprooted children will turn out to be much higher,” Laura Healy insisted.

“Too late”

The UNICEF report includes some – partial – forecasts for specific disasters already.

Floods from overflowing rivers alone could displace 96 million children over the next 30 years, cyclones another 10.3 million and storms 7.2 million, not counting the number of minors who will be hurriedly removed from their homes for precautionary reasons.

For children “who are forced to flee, the phobia and complications of such disasters can be devastating” as they are gripped by “anxiety”, not knowing “whether they will be able to return to their homes, go back to school, or be forced to leave again,” UNICEF chief Kathryn Russell said in a press release accompanying the report.

“Displacement can save their lives, but it is extremely destabilizing,” he continued. “We have the tools and knowledge to address this growing challenge facing children, but we are taking action too slowly.”

UNICEF is calling on the international community to consider the issue at COP28, the United Nations climate summit, which will be held in Dubai in a few weeks.

Children, including those already uprooted, must be prepared “to live in a world where the climate has changed,” Laura Healy warned.

Although the consequences of climate change are now everywhere, the report stands out in the regions and countries that are particularly vulnerable.

The Philippines, India and China are the countries most affected in absolute numbers (some 23 million child displacements in 6 years), due to their large populations, their geographical location, but also due to preventive evacuation plans.

Percentage wise, however, the picture brings to light how vulnerable Asian, African and island countries are. In Dominica, 76% of children were displaced within six years, in Cuba and Saint Martin over 30%, in Vanuatu 25%, in the Philippines 23%…