2.2 Who is a Refugee?
2.3.1 Experiences in the Home Country (Pre-migration Experiences)
26 stress comes as a result of massive challenges that children encounter on their homes, on the journey to the host country and complexities associated with living in a new society (Rousseau et al., 1997).
27 Somali refugee children in Boston, United States of America (USA) witnessed the execution of their family members, experienced war and disruption of lives (Williams, 2010). Rasmussen, Katoni, Keller and Wilkinson (2011) argued that refugee children experienced horrific incidents during the attacks by Sudanese military in Darfur. Children were shot, suffocated, strangled, kidnapped, drowned and starved to death. Refugees stated four different types of material loss:
destruction of crops, destruction of homes, theft, and killing of livestock (Rasmussen et al., 2011). Schweitzer, Brough, Vromans and Asic-Kobe (2011) argued that:
Burmese refugee children in Australia had severe pre-migration traumas which include:
lack of food or water; ill health without access to medical care; lack of shelter;
imprisonment/detention; rape or sexual abuse; forced isolation from others; being close to death; forced separation from family members; murder of family or friend; lost or kidnapped and tortured (p. 303).
Weaver and Burns (2001) articulated that children from Sri Lanka who were refugees in Canada had traumatic pre-migration experiences in their home country. Some reported that they had cigarette burns and others had damaged joints and vertebrae. Some of the respondents described their families including children being immersed in a climate of violence where they had no safe place to turn to and could trust no one, including government officials and the police (Weaver &
Burns, 2001).
According to Weaver and Burns (2001) Sri Lankan citizens had daunting pre-migration experiences. Adults and children had gun shots in various body parts such as the knee, neck and abdomen. Such experiences are devastating and they result in refugees losing their homes during the period of conflict. Muneghina and Papadopoulos (2010) contend that involuntary loss of homes which refugee children experience is not only about the mindful loss of the house that belongs to a family or material possessions that they like. This loss also creates a more fundamental psychological disturbance of their whole sense of belonging. Refugee children, like other human beings, get attached to a place that they call home. Therefore, loosing that home over-night will have immeasurable repercussions on their well-being.
28 2.3.2 Transit Experiences (Transmigration)
The second stage, transit, involves refugees on a flight (journey) to the host country. Anderson et al. (2004) affirmed that the transit phase includes experiences that occurred in the transition from home to host country. This could be a short transition that includes the plane trip from home to host country or could involve years spent hiding or confinement in refugee camps, prior to moving to the host country (Anderson et al., 2004). A journey to a country of refuge can be stressful and burdensome to refugees. Children may experience perilous journeys, arrest, detention, sexual assault and torture during their journeys to the host country (Kaplan, 2009).
They may be arrested because of not having travel documents or for trying to enter clandestinely.
Children and women are the most vulnerable groups of people on transit.
Kira, Smith, Lewandowski and Templin (2010) stated that the experience of traveling from one country to another is much more difficult for women and children because they are more vulnerable to assaults and exploitation by people that they come across at the border and in refugee camps. According to Bryant and Ahearn (1999):
For the African refugee child who is forced to leave home, relatives, friends, and familiar surroundings, the process is fraught with danger and often times involves additional traumatic events. For example, many Angolan refugees were brutalized, robbed, raped and killed by soldiers. Mozambicans fleeing war in their country were exposed to a long, dangerous and traumatic journey to safety, and many Somali refugees died of starvation as they fled their country en route to areas where they could find food (p. 80).
Transit experiences can be more traumatising to children because they may encounter worse problems than they had prior to departing from their home countries. Some children may be lost while others may witness tragic experiences on the way to the host country. Kirkbride and Jones (2011) suggest that transit in itself is a major life changing event and may put considerable stress on individuals. It involves a series of losses, such as the family and the familiar society, and both emotional and structural losses are experienced. The aspect of loss is very common to refugee children. It starts in the pre-migration phase when children lose their relatives, homes and other belongings. The loss continues in transit where children will be losing their culture and societal norms when they move to a new country.
29 The refugee children’s journey to the host country is very stressful and can involve border jumping, river crossing, walking in desserts, and also lengthy stays in refugee camps (Henley &
Robinson, 2011). Refugees face challenges such as walking long distances and being denied entry into the host country by immigration officials. The major trauma reported by the South East Asian refugees in USA was walking very long distances in order to reach the border (Rousseau et al., 1997). According to Rutter (2003) almost all Vietnamese refugees in the United Kingdom have made perilous journeys in small boats to Hong Kong and other South East Asian countries in which at least 10% of refugees perished from dehydration, drowning or pirate attacks.
Transit experiences often become a big challenge because refugees make unplanned journeys to countries of refuge. They may have been forced to run away from their home country without having ample time to prepare for the journey (Henley & Robinson, 2011). In such a situation, refugee children take chances of trying to cross borders illegally by slipping passed immigration patrols. This makes refugee journeys risky because women and children can be taken advantage of and get abducted and raped by people who may have helped them to make clandestine entries.
Henley and Robinson (2011) stated that as a result of illegal entries into a foreign country, children may sustain physical injuries. This is because the process of transmigration implies a high level of stress and consequences which may have repercussions on the mental health of immigrants (Kirchner & Patiño, 2011).
In South Africa, migrant children who cross borders illegally are at the risk of rape, abduction and even murder by people who pretend to be willing to offer help to unaccompanied minors (CoRMSA, 2009). One of the main characteristics of the transit experience is that migrants pass borders illegally. They may be caught before or after they reach host communities, and are deported back home (CoRMSA, 2008). Vijayakumar and Jotheeswaran (2010) asserted in the European context, that in many instances refugee children are detained, dispersed and ill-treated mainly because they will not be in possession of legal papers. The absence of legal papers makes some refugees and their children make their journeys in the evenings. This endangers their lives because they may be robbed and murdered by criminals in the host country.
30 Paoletti (2011) postulates that despite tighter security policies, the number of refugees in Libya remains high and those who used clandestine entry had reached unprecedented levels in the history of that country. With immigration controls tightened, more children end up being placed in the hands of smugglers to cross the border which endangers their lives (Ayott & Williamson, 2001). CoRMSA (2009) states that many Zimbabwean children who try to enter South Africa through clandestine channels experience distressing and life threatening encounters. Children are tempted to do this because of the absence of travel documents.
Absence of travel documents make refugee children run away from the police all the time. They will avoid the police because of a fear of deportation. Some may be detained and forced to live as prisoners for a long time before they are finally deported. Some refugees may be detained and deported before they make it to settlement communities. CoRMSA (2009) indicates that a total of up to50 000 non-South Africans are detained at the Lindela Detention Centre. Non-nationals will eventually be deported to South African borders so that they go back to their home countries. While some refugee children may be deported before they reach their areas of settlement, others may be deported after they lived in the host country for many years (CoRMSA, 2008). They may be detained and forced to return to their home countries because of a lack of legal documents.
Some refugee children experience trafficking. According to Keogh (2010) trafficking in persons entails the enrolment, transporting or harbouring of persons in an illegal manner. Busch- Armendariz, Nsonwu and Cook (2011) argued that there are two main types of human trafficking: sex trafficking and labour trafficking. According to Rutter (2003) sex trafficking involves the recruitment of people in order to participate in sexual activities. Women and children are more vulnerable to sex trafficking where they would be raped and sometimes used in activities that involve pornography and prostitution. Busch-Armendariz et al. (2011) contend that traffickers use victims as lucrative commodities. Male refugee children are vulnerable to labour trafficking which involves work and maximizing profits at an organisation or facility.
Men and young boys are more exposed to this type of trafficking because of their power and ability to offer cheap industrial labour (Busch-Armendariz et al., 2011).
31 Refugee children who experience trafficking often require professional help in order to get rid of memories of their bad encounters (Busch-Armendariz et al., 2011). Rutter (2003) states that refugee children require emotional and psychological help to assist them to get over trafficking experiences. They may have been ill-treated and exposed to experiences beyond their ages such as pornography. Some children would suffer from trauma after they have been trafficked (Papadopoulos, 2007). As a result, they require emotional and psychological help when they are in the host country.