OBESSU stands unconditionally #withrefugees
On World Refugee Day, we express our unconditional solidarity and support for refugee students and their fundamental human rights. It is our most fundamental belief that every young person has the right to high quality education not just at primary but also at secondary and tertiary level.
Yet many young people who have been displaced, do not have access to the right to education: According to UNCHR, refugee children and youth of schooling age are 5 times more likely to be out of school than non-refugees. At secondary school level, this accounts for 1.95 million refugee youth who were not in secondary school in 2015.
Although the vast majority of those young people live in developing countries which face additional barriers to the provision of education for all (1), Europe has also not fulfilled its responsibilities to ensure refugees access to their human rights:
In many European states, young people in immigrant detention are denied access to any form of education. Once enrolled in the education system, students with refugee background are supposed to be entitled to the same support as any other students. However, they remain more vulnerable due to fewer economic resources and social support networks which puts additional stress on students to remain in education and contributes to the high rates of early school leaving amongst students with immigrant background(2). Access to psychological support services remains poor in most countries for the majority of students, which is especially needed for those suffering from different effects of trauma(3).
We are furthermore worried by the increasingly hostile political environment towards those seeking protection in Europe. We urge all European states to act in accordance with human rights and the legal obligation as outlined in the 1951 Refugee Convention to protect those who are displaced, and pay special attention to young people and their right to education.
Any form of racism and xenophobia in schools and society as a whole cannot be tolerated and must be actively fought against. As school student unions, we strongly advocate for inclusive school environments that respect diverse needs and backgrounds of learners and practice inclusive intercultural and interreligious learning.
We also recognize our role in promoting the inclusion and empowerment of school students with refugee and other migrant backgrounds. For this reason, we have been running our Seeds for Integration re-granting project which funds small-scale school student initiatives that aim to advance the inclusion of displaced youth in European schools. We will continue to fund and support grassroots projects run by young people for young people and loudly advocate for the right to education for all.
(1) http://www.unhcr.org/introduction.html
(2) http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC109065/jrc109065_techbrief_migesl_180202final.pdf
(3) http://fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2017/current-migration-situation-eu-education
