from AHMED ZAYED in Tripoli, Libya
Libya Bureau
TRIPOLI, (CAJ News) – THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that around 3 500 minors have died or disappeared attempting to cross the Central Mediterranean migration route to Italy over the past decade.
This coming Friday marks ten years since a catastrophic shipwreck off the coast of Italy, and the figures have been disclosed to coincide with that.
Around seven in ten children make this journey without a parent or legal guardian, meaning that most children who died or disappeared along this route were travelling alone. Their journeys can be particularly harrowing. Survey data found more than half of children and young people report experiencing physical violence, and a third report being held in a location against their will.
Many of the children attempting to cross the Central Mediterranean route are fleeing war, conflict, violence and poverty. Most cross via Libya.
Regina De Dominicis, UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia and Special Coordinator for the Refugee and Migrant response in Europe.
“Governments must protect the rights and best interests of children in line with their obligations under national and international law.
“The rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child do not stop at borders or shores – they travel with children as they cross.”
At least 20 803 people have died or disappeared in the central Mediterranean over the past ten years.
Many shipwrecks on this perilous migration route from North Africa leave no survivors or go unrecorded – making the true number of people dying or disappearing practically impossible to verify and likely much higher.
– CAJ News