Children have the same rights in every country around the world and the people who campaign for those rights often face the same problems.

The ombudsmen from Luxembourg, France, and Belgium are currently travelling the three countries together. On Tuesday, they visited the Security Unit ('Unisec') in Dreiborn, a closed unit for adolescents, held talks in the adolescent psychiatry, and met with MPs from five different parliamentary committees in the early evening.
 
One of the topics of discussion focussed on a great challenge that countries across Europe are facing at the moment: The reception of underage refugees, children and adolescents who were forced to flee the war in Ukraine. A major concern is that some of them risk getting lost during or after their escape and could end up as victims of human trafficking or violence. Charel Schmit, Luxembourg's Ombudsman for Children and Adolescents, pointed out that the Ukrainian ombudsman shared this concern with their European counterparts.
 
Both Schmit and Luxembourg Ombudsman Claudia Monti stressed that minors must be registered "as soon as possible".
 
According to Monti, this would "ideally" happen as soon as they reach the border in Ukraine, so that the Luxembourgish authorities know how many children they should expect, which in turn would allow them to start integrating the children into the official network. This system could also "prevent random people from taking them in". "While there are kind-hearted people offering shelter, there are also some with more nefarious intentions," Monti pointed out. For the Luxembourg ombudsman, it is important to watch out that young people "are not criminalised, i.e. that they are either coerced into becoming culprits or that they become victims of human trafficking."
 
The ombudsmen demand that institutions across Europe should be on the lookout for this. For example, households offering to take in women and children should be checked beforehand and must not be left unsupervised afterwards either.
 
Schmit acknowledged that it is difficult to say how many people will be needed for this type of operation, especially seeing as this situation is a new experience. He also stressed that the ombudsmen carry out their work regardless of passports and nationalities.
 
For Schmit, it is essential to watch out that children are not discriminated against, e.g. sorted into drawers according to the places they came from. This is especially true in the case of children who were forced to flee because of war and persecution, and regardless of whether they came to Luxembourg with or without their parents. "We have to take them in to the best of our abilities and we must oppose any and all discrimination against them," Schmit stressed.
 
The situation of underage refugees is thus one of the major challenges for those campaigning for the rights of children and adolescents, but it is not the only one. There were and remain several other questions that need to be dealt with, according to Bernard de Vos, the General Representative for Children's Rights in Belgium.
 
According to de Vos, other topics include "precariousness as well as child poverty and the terrible consequences it has on children's rights". The ombudsmen also regularly discuss bullying, particularly in schools, during video calls, de Vos stated.
 
This cooperation initiative was launched by France and is meant to benefit children and adolescents.