It has been almost two years since the body of drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi washed onshore a Turkish beach and almost a year since Omran Daqneesh was pictured wounded and dazed in the back of an ambulance after his home was bombed up in the fierce fighting during the siege of Aleppo. After the photos of the two tragic children spread across the world, they became powerful symbols of the refugee crisis.

With World Refugee Day being marked on Tuesday, it is worth asking, did Kurdi and Daqneesh’s misfortune bring any real change? 

Calamitous conflicts, violence and persecution in places like Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa left a record of 65.6 million people displaced from their homes as of the end of 2016, almost double the number from the previous year, according to the UN. 

Globally, refugees now number more than 22 million and children make up half them.

Refugee children including babies languish in "dangerous and harrowing" conditions in detention centers in the Asia-Pacific, suggested a report by Save the Children and the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network in May.

It said more than 2,290 young refugees were being held without proper access to food, adequate health facilities or education in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia at the end of 2016.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said, "I've met so many who have lost so much. But they never lose their dreams for their children or their desire to better our world. They ask for little in return – only our support in their time of greatest need." 

On April 12, 2017, the EU welcomed new policy guidance from the European Commission as a significant turning point for the protection of refugee children. Suggested actions include appointment of guardians for children, boosting child protection at all levels as well as in hot spots, better data collection to ensure that children are properly tracked, adopting a comprehensive approach to identifying durable solutions, as well as better monitoring and cooperation among states.