Forgotten Children of War Sierra Leonean Refugee Children in Guinea Six-year-old boy from Kono District in Sierra Leone who fled to Guinea on his own and now lives with an elderly woman in Boudou camp. ©Human Rights Watch 1999	Ending || Next Sierra Leonean Refugee Children Neglected "Sahr* is very stubborn. He won't go to school if he is not fed," says the elderly woman who cares for this six-year-old child. Sahr's parents were hurt in an attack on their village and he fled to Guinea on his own. When Sahr arrived in Guinea, he stayed with a woman who gave his food to her own children and then abandoned him. His only article of clothing is the dress he wears in the photo. Sahr was diagnosed with severe malnutrition before his current elderly caregiver, who is too frail to work, took him in because she felt sorry for him. * All children's names have been changed to respect their privacy.
Refugee children suffer a form of double jeopardy. A denial of their human rights made them refugees in the first place; and as child refugees they are also frequently abused, as the most vulnerable category of an already vulnerable population. When they cross a border to flee persecution or conflict, refugee children often lose whatever social or familial protection they enjoyed at home. Established support systems, such as schools, break down and traditional family structures often collapse with flight. Tragically, the risk of human rights violations against refugee children therefore does not end at the crossing of international borders, even where they may have left behind them a series of traumatic experiences -- "A Human Rights Approach to the Protection of Refugee Children," Statement by Dennis McNamara, Director, Division of International Protection, UNHCR, London School of Economics, November 14, 1998.