Australian website: mobile phone for refugees as important as food and water

Digital devices are not just a way to stay in touch with friends and family, but they can be the lifeblood of unaccompanied refugees and minors, says Prodita Sabarini, in an article published by The Australian website.

She notes that more than 200,000 unaccompanied children applied for asylum in Europe between 2015 and 2018, and that these young people in the EU today have something in common: their smartphones.

For unaccompanied young children, having old phones and inaccessible digital technologies and expensive mobile phone subscriptions are barriers to their quest to live in a digital environment.

Similarly, children's literacy levels can significantly impede technological development. In the absence of an organized education system, refugees will suffer because of their poor knowledge of information technology.

Refugee assistance
The author points to a group of researchers in Britain and Hungary, whom she works with to help refugee children. She says that what appeared to be a recent opportunity at a conference in Prague is now a major research project. Unaccompanied youth for digital technology and social media.

The team's endeavors revolve around whether these techniques help young people successfully integrate into society, and adds that the team has carried out its field work in Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy and Britain, focusing on unaccompanied minors among asylum seekers.

She explained that the project included interviews with 56 refugees between the ages of 14 and 19 years, as well as caregivers, teachers and educators, and that this research included meeting young people and reflecting on their behavior in their homes or care centers, in addition to a description of the races and conditions of some children through Facebook.

The researchers concluded that young refugees could easily get lost in their attempt to access the digital world, as well as the need for multiple skills and tools to successfully integrate into a highly connected culture.

Tools and Applications
The article explains that young people have learned how to use many tools, such as using translation applications, communicating with locals and downloading music from their home countries. However, this was not the case for the majority of unaccompanied children.

Many of these children have turned to teachers and guardians to address their online problems, and older refugees have helped their new and younger counterparts better understand the digital world from having a better understanding of digital technologies.

The author also speaks of the "false news" dominating the media landscape in which these children are active, leading to poor judgments about what information to trust or what opinions they should follow, and as a result the researchers created the Media + Mentor application for teachers and mentors of minors. Unaccompanied refugees.

The researchers hope that they can help refugee youth by equipping them with the skills to stay safe and thrive in a new country where they are building a new life, not just in the digital world.