Children make up 58 % of all Pakistani migrants: UN report

Islamabad [Pakistan], Sept. 8 (ANI): United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in its latest report has pointed out that children make up 58 per cent of all refugees from Pakistan, the highest proportion in the South Asian region. The UN agency said there were close to 300,000 refugees originating from Pakistan last year and children accounted for 58 percent of them. The report highlighted that insecurity and conflicts in various parts of the country have forced the children leave, although the country also continues to host a substantial number of refugees - nearly 1.6 million from other countries, reports Dawn. Entitled "Uprooted", the report said that conflicts in many Asian countries, high susceptibility to natural hazards and a large population all contribute to the huge toll of internal displacement within the continent. So far, about 19.2 million people across Asia are internally displaced due to violence. With Asia as the birthplace of 43 percent of the world's migrants - around 104 million people as of 2015, it said that majority of Asian migrants move within the region. Considerable amount of movement was seen between sub-regions, with the largest single movement of people within the continent moving from Southern Asia to Western Asia. More than 40 million Asian migrants have found new homes outside the continent, the reports pointed. The reports said that a total of 12million child migrants live in Asia, which accounts for 16 percent of all migrants in the region and make up 39 percent of the world's child migrants. This proportion is notably below Asia's 56 percent share of the global child population. (ANI)