Germany does not extend the same rights to refugee children as it does to native-born children, UNICEF has said.
This was worrying for a group in need of special care, the children's organization has warned. The UN children's organization published a report on Tuesday decrying the circumstances of refugee children in Germany, Deutsche Welle reported.
According to the report, refugee children not only have far lower standards of safety, medical treatment and education than their German-born counterparts, but are also treated very differently depending on their prospects of being allowed to stay in Germany.
"Refugee children have often survived horrors and brutal violence. For this reason, they need special protection and care," said German UNICEF chief, Christian Schneider.
The report accused the German government of negligence in the face of Europe's unprecedented refugee crisis.
The organization had already pointed out in 2014, UNICEF said, that the rights of migrant children were not being respected, and the recent influx of refugees has served to make the situation much worse.
Not only do refugee youth lack access to the education afforded to German children, the amount of time they have to stay with their families in unsafe and unsanitary first arrival centers has doubled from the minimum three months to half a year.
