Reuters, Geneva :
Migrant children making the perilous journey to Europe to escape war and poverty face possible beatings, rape and forced labour in addition to risk of drowning in the Mediterranean, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.
Minors account for a growing percentage of migrants and refugees, particularly those trying to reach Italy by sea from Libya, it said in a report, “Danger Every Step of the Way”.
Of the roughly 206,200 people who arrived in Europe by sea this year to June 4, one in three was a child, it said, citing figures from the UN refugee agency.
“Every step of the journey is fraught with danger, all the more so for the nearly one in four children travelling without a parent or guardian,” UNICEF said.
That ratio was far higher on boats from Libya, where more than nine out of ten children were unaccompanied. UNICEF said there were almost 235,000 migrants and refugees in Libya and 956,000 in the Sahel, many or most hoping to go to Europe.
UNICEF said that there was “strong evidence that criminal human trafficking networks were targeting the most vulnerable, in particular women and children.
“Italian social workers claim that both boys and girls are sexually assaulted and forced into prostitution while in Libya, and that some of the girls were pregnant when they arrived in Italy, having been raped,” it said.
The UN refugee agency has said the flow of people from Turkey to Greece has slowed hugely but dealing with migrants now stranded along the route remains a huge challenge.
UNICEF said many children had fallen between the cracks of overstretched asylum systems and their cases should be a priority.
“All too often children are held behind bars – in detention facilities or in police custody – because of a lack of space in child protection centres and limited capacity for identifying alternative solutions,” it said.
Meanwhile, more than 55,000 migrants have died on their journey in the past 20 years and their families rarely learned of their fate, the International Organization of Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.
In a report entitled “Fatal Journeys”, the agency called on authorities to ensure the missing are identified and their families traced.
A record 5,400 migrants are estimated to have died in 2015 trying to cross borders, and a further 3,100 have perished in the first five months of this year, the IOM said.
Of last year’s deaths, 3,770 occurred in the Mediterranean where boats capsized en route to Europe. Others died in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea and along the U.S.-Mexico border, it said.
Migrant children making the perilous journey to Europe to escape war and poverty face possible beatings, rape and forced labour in addition to risk of drowning in the Mediterranean, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.
Minors account for a growing percentage of migrants and refugees, particularly those trying to reach Italy by sea from Libya, it said in a report, “Danger Every Step of the Way”.
Of the roughly 206,200 people who arrived in Europe by sea this year to June 4, one in three was a child, it said, citing figures from the UN refugee agency.
“Every step of the journey is fraught with danger, all the more so for the nearly one in four children travelling without a parent or guardian,” UNICEF said.
That ratio was far higher on boats from Libya, where more than nine out of ten children were unaccompanied. UNICEF said there were almost 235,000 migrants and refugees in Libya and 956,000 in the Sahel, many or most hoping to go to Europe.
UNICEF said that there was “strong evidence that criminal human trafficking networks were targeting the most vulnerable, in particular women and children.
“Italian social workers claim that both boys and girls are sexually assaulted and forced into prostitution while in Libya, and that some of the girls were pregnant when they arrived in Italy, having been raped,” it said.
The UN refugee agency has said the flow of people from Turkey to Greece has slowed hugely but dealing with migrants now stranded along the route remains a huge challenge.
UNICEF said many children had fallen between the cracks of overstretched asylum systems and their cases should be a priority.
“All too often children are held behind bars – in detention facilities or in police custody – because of a lack of space in child protection centres and limited capacity for identifying alternative solutions,” it said.
Meanwhile, more than 55,000 migrants have died on their journey in the past 20 years and their families rarely learned of their fate, the International Organization of Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.
In a report entitled “Fatal Journeys”, the agency called on authorities to ensure the missing are identified and their families traced.
A record 5,400 migrants are estimated to have died in 2015 trying to cross borders, and a further 3,100 have perished in the first five months of this year, the IOM said.
Of last year’s deaths, 3,770 occurred in the Mediterranean where boats capsized en route to Europe. Others died in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea and along the U.S.-Mexico border, it said.
