Most refugees unable to adequately feed, house children: World Vision

Life in nearly a dozen countries has deteriorated so much over the last two years that a large majority of refugees and those displaced within those nations cannot house or feed themselves or their children, a new report from aid agency World Vision has found.

The report, "Hungry and unprotected children: The forgotten refugees," surveyed refugees and internally displaced people in multiple countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, Honduras, Jordan, Mali, Peru, Uganda and Venezuela.

The participants included Rohingya refugees, as well as others from the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Syria and Central America.

The survey found that 82 per cent of respondents are struggling to afford necessities such as rent, health care, and food.

About one-third said their children had lost weight over the previous 12 months, with Colombia and Mali reporting figures as high as 50 and 46 per cent respectively.

"COVID, conflict and climate change continue to put more and more lives at risk with hunger hotspots popping up around the world," Julie McKinley, director of humanitarian and emergency affairs at World Vision Canada, said in a statement.

"Our staff are hard at work in these places, but more international support, more Canadian support is needed — time is running out to save lives."

The report's release coincides with World Refugee Day on Monday, an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the world.

The UN refugee agency said last month that the number of people forced to flee conflict, violence, human rights violations and persecution surpassed 100 million for the first time on record, brought in part by Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine and other conflicts.

The war in Ukraine is affecting poor developing countries. Russia and Ukraine export approximately 30 per cent of the world's wheat and more than half of its sunflower oil.

As many as seven million children in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are on the brink of starvation, the World Vision report says, with the three countries importing 90 per cent of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine.

McKinley called child protection "the least funded humanitarian sector," with only four per cent of global requests actually being met.

"As the world rightly reaches out to support refugees fleeing Ukraine, we urge those who have the political power to prioritize the lives of all refugees and internally displaced people globally, which continue to worsen each year," McKinley said.

"All refugees need and deserve support, regardless of which country they fled. We urge donors to increase funds, rather than reallocate what has already been pledged, so that all refugees receive the support they need."

The report also found that half of refugee children don't have access to safe shelter and 44 per cent have no access to child protection services, the latter representing a 13 per cent increase from 2021.

One-in-four refugees reported the death of a family member in the past year, nearly half of which was due to COVID-19.

The agency says the world's least wealthy countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, have received only 1.4 per cent of available vaccines since the start of the pandemic, with children receiving an even smaller portion of that.

The number of families saying they do not have the resources to send their children to school doubled between 2021 and 2022 to one-in-five.

With files from The Associated Press