Amongst all these refugee crises, do you know who bears the brunt the most? Children. According to UNICEF, “children make up less than one third of the global population, but they were 50 per cent of the world's refugees in 2018. Today, nearly 1 in 3 children living outside their countries of birth are child refugees; for adults, the proportion is less than 5 per cent.” Did your eyes just widen? Did you just gasp? Good. 

How these children will grow into mature adults or even be a part of the world’s future is beyond imagination and a very faint possibility. These kids—not all of them, mind you—live on a sliver of hope that one day they might attend a regular school or even experience something close to normalcy. 

Deplorable and heart-wrenching acts like human trafficking, smuggling, child labour and child marriage have been on the rise since forever and the digits just don’t seem to back down. Children are being sold to prostitution and slavery. UNICEF tells us that three in every five child migrants and refugees headed north from Central America and the Caribbean are victims of human trafficking, most of them sold into sex work. Apparently it’s a part in the “big business,” which is why most kids escape to other countries or stay hidden with relatives to escape incidences of gang violence and rape. If we are to save these children from this pathetic scenario, these facts and figures must make our blood run cold first.

"He said to me, if I didn't sleep with him, he would not bring me to Europe. He raped me," These are the melancholic words of 17-year-old Mary from Nigeria. This is not right. Children are indeed humanity’s last hope. It is their right to feel safe and it is our duty to protect them. They are not supposed to lead a life where they constantly fear murky eyes raking up and down their bodies.

There is only so much a bunch of men in black suits sitting on a table can do. It starts with all of us. It is up to us to pull these unfortunate children out of such hellholes. If this is how the future of this world is being burnt away in peril, then I don't know how we're expected to improve scenarios when we grow up. The least these children in conflict areas ask for is a peaceful post-conflict life! Is it too much to ask for? There ain’t no rest for the wicked indeed, but that does not mean all effort should be ceased along with it.