According to UNICEF, about 3,500 immigrant children have died or vanished during the past ten years while attempting to travel across the Mediterranean to Italy, or one baby per day.
The United Nations agency for children warned that the actual number of dead or missing children was “likely little higher” in its measure.
With almost 22, 000 dead or missing workers reported since 2014, the Central Mediterranean migration path, which runs from North Africa to Italy, is the most dangerous course in the world.
According to UNICEF, about one in every six migrants traveling that way are children, with the bulk traveling alone.
According to the agency’s report,” Past data has revealed that eight in ten children and young people traveling along the Central Mediterranean Route are victims of oppression, including abuse, sexual abuse, forced labor, child marriage, and captivity,” according to the statement.
On April 18, 2015, a tragedy that capsized with hundreds of people in the keep caused UNICEF to recall it, which also claimed more than 1, 000 lives.
That accident” should have been a time in which all nations and communities with the energy to do so came together to defend kids in countries of origin, transit, and upon arrival.” said the organization.
” Over the decade since, many shipwrecks had caused the deaths of thousands of children.
Giorgia Meloni, the hard-right Italian government, has pledged to reduce abnormal immigration.
It has partnerships with Tunisia and Libya, from which the bulk of workers leave for Italy, where it offers funding in exchange for assistance preventing absences.
From January 1 through April 14, the government’s interior ministry reports that 1,588 non-accompanied minors have been arriving on the government’s shores, compared to 11, 805 of the year.
In 2024, 8, 043 non-accompanied adolescents arrived, along from 18, 820 the year before.
According to UNICEF, many children who have been impacted by relocation are still denied” their most important right.”
The organization also made recommendations for ending the detention of kids who are migrating or seeking migrant status, as well as for keeping families together after appearance as the best way to protect minors.
