Rarely understanding what was happening to them, children were often denied information about their detention and their right to be represented by an attorney in immigration proceedings in a language they understood. In some cases they were housed with juvenile offenders and subjected to a rigid and punitive environment. In refugee camps in Guinea, Human Rights Watch found that Sierra Leonean girls as young as twelve may feel they have no choice but to work as child prostitutes in order to support themselves and, in some cases, their families. In addition, these girls have little or no access to education or health care. Refugee children who live in dangerously located camps, frequently short distances from the border of their home country with a civil war just on the other side, are also vulnerable to cross-border armed raids, which can result in murder, mutilation, and abduction.
Refugee children are also at risk of being recruited and used as child soldiers.
In Guinea, Sierra Leonean refugee children as young as seven risked being abducted by raiding rebel forces or being used by the government civil defense forces, known as Kamajors. Many of these protection concerns, particularly various forms of hazardous labor exploitation such as child prostitution and child soldiering, are directly linked to a lack of food security. Despite the obvious safety risks involved, families sometimes send children back into the land they fled to forage for food. Human Rights Watch has interviewed Sierra Leonean refugee children in Guinea who encountered rebels while searching for food, resulting in abduction, mutilation, or even the murder of others with them. Special care and monitoring of separated refugee children is also needed, as they are particularly vulnerable to abuse.