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Gender plays a pivotal role in the decision to leave home and continues to shape a child’s experiences and vulnerabilities throughout their journey, a new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has revealed. More girls and boys than ever are on the move, with 35.5 million children living outside their country of birth in 2020 and an additional 23.3 million girls and boys internally displaced. Released on Friday, the UNICEF report Uncertain Pathways found that over the course of the year, there were almost 15 million new displacements or 41,000 new displacements each day, and that boys outnumber girls.
“This means today close to 60 million girls and boys have migrated across borders or been forcibly displaced within their own countries. Almost 10 million more compared to 2015 when UNICEF published the report ‘Children Uprooted’ said Verena Knaus, Global Lead for Migration and Displacement UNICEF, who was speaking at the launch of the report in Geneva. Ms Knaus stated that while there is much policy debate over labels such as whether a child is a migrant or a refugee, “we know surprisingly little about how migration and flight is experienced differently by gender”. “Gender skews certain migration routes and experiences,” Ms Knaus said. In 2020, “nine in ten unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Europe were boys. More than half of these boys came from Afghanistan, Morocco and Syria. She added that Afghanistan is number 1 on the list of Top 10 countries of origin with the largest number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Europe. Whilst we know that many more Afghan boys have migrated across borders than girls, she highlighted the gender imbalance: “Where are the Afghan girls? Where and how can Afghan girls seek international protection, today and in the future?”
The report also describes how migration decision making is gendered, Ms Knaus said girls and boys may be motivated to move for different reasons; “boys are often expected to assume the role of bread winner, while girls may migrate as a strategy to delay early marriage or conflict-related sexual violence”. Migration-specific risks are also gendered with girls outnumbering boys by four to three as victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation, while boys are often trafficked for forced labour. The report highlights how existing gender gaps in education are further exacerbated in humanitarian settings, with displaced girls more likely to be out of school than boys. “In camp settings, girls are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys,” said Ms Knaus. The report calls for governments to address the “blind spots” through greater coordination and investment in gender-specific data, disaggregation and standardization to ensure the response really reaches those it needs to reach. It urges a move away from one-size-fits-all approaches and to prioritise interventions that are tailored to the gender-specific risks, needs and drivers of children on the move. The response must not just be “gender-responsive but “gender transformative” to address the deeply ingrained inequalities between girls and boys when it comes to access to international protection and the opportunities that migration offers, she said.
STORY: Gender & Migration Report UNICEF
TRT: 03:51”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 27 AUG 2021, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
1.Exterior wide shot, United Nations flag flying.
2 panel and reporters are briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Verena Knaus, Global Lead for Migration and Displacement UNICEF: “The data and the experience is presented in the report. They both challenge some of our assumptions about how we think about gender, migration, childhood, but they also point to some really serious blindspots things we just simply do not yet know answers we lack and needs that go unmet because of this”.
4.Close of journalist in briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Verena Knaus, Global Lead for Migration and Displacement UNICEF: “In 2020, 35.5 million children live outside the country of birth, either migrants or refugees displaced, mainly due to conflict, violence or environmental catastrophe”.
6.Close of reporter in briefing
7. SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Verena Knaus, Global Lead for Migration and Displacement UNICEF: “Another 23.5 million boys and girls are internally displaced, mainly due to conflict or disasters, if you put these figures together, we're looking at 60 million boys and girls on the move, either outside the country of origin of birth, or forcibly displaced within the country. When we last put our data in the report, “Uprooted Children in 2015,” this was 10 million less. Amongst them. Also 13 million refugees and asylum seekers and nearly half of them, 48 per cent, are girls”.
8.Mid of journalist at briefing
9. SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Verena Knaus, Global Lead for Migration and Displacement UNICEF: ”There are huge gender disparities and some of the migratory routes and some of the experiences are highly skewed. So, for example, in 2020, nine in 10 unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Europe were boys. This begs the question, where are the girls in need of protection?”
10.Close of journalist at briefing
10. SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Verena Knaus, Global Lead for Migration and Displacement UNICEF: “Afghanistan, also, as we know, of course, and we talked about that just now, is the number one in the list of top 10 countries of origin for unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Europe”.
11. Mid of attendee at briefing
12.SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Verena Knaus, Global Lead for Migration and Displacement UNICEF: “Very often, girls, for example, they try to use migration as a tactic to delay marriage”.
13. Mid of screen in briefing
14.SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Verena Knaus, Global Lead for Migration and Displacement UNICEF: “While boys, of course, try to use migration, especially in West Africa, as a way to grow and sort of have the passage to adulthood”.
15. Mid of journalists at briefing
16. SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Verena Knaus, Global Lead for Migration and Displacement UNICEF: “Risks equally highly gendered amongst those identified as victims of trafficking, girls outnumber boys four to three. So this goes on top of children making up a third of all trafficking victims worldwide. And this number of child victims has actually doubled since 2004”.
17. Mid of journalists at briefing
18.SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Verena Knaus, Global Lead for Migration and Displacement UNICEF: “It's nice to start talking about gender responsive policies, but what we actually need is gender transformative responses. We do have a problem when girls in need of protection cannot leave and cannot access protection. But we also have a huge challenge on our hands if we continue to sail blind because we actually don't know where boys and girls are, what they need and where and how we fail them”.
19. Various of journalists at briefing
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New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
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“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
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“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
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Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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