No Safe Place: Violence among Unaccompanied Refugee Children Seeking Asylum in Kenya

Abstract

This paper explores the rarely examined experiences of unaccompanied refugee minors in Nairobi, Kenya. Children are thought to comprise up to a third of Nairobi's refugee population, however, there is virtually no data on them. The paper provides a first analysis of a unique dataset to ascertain unaccompanied minor refugees’ experiences of physical, emotional, resource related, and sexual violence. Our research findings indicate widespread violence among refugee children living in Nairobi, and denote the prevalence of several kinds of violence in particular. Our results also reveal which children are most at risk and the type of abuse they are most likely to experience.