Two kids are drown on common per day whereas attempting to cross Central Mediterranean because of the “absence of safe and legal routes,” the UN Children’s Agency, UNICEF, stated on Friday.
The variety of kids which have misplaced their lives whereas trying to cross the Mediterranean to succeed in Europe has doubled in comparison with final 12 months, Verena Knaus, the UNICEF’s world chief on migration and displacement, informed a UN press briefing in Geneva.
These numbers, she stated, are pushed by conflicts in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, West Africa, and at the same time as far-off as Afghanistan.
In the primary six months of 2023 alone, 289 kids have died, Knaus stated, equal to round 11 kids dying each week. In the identical interval, the overall variety of kids recorded which have tried to cross is round 11,600, she added.
“They are literally drowning in the inaction of governments around the shores,” she stated. “Children are dying because there is an absence of safe and legal routes. Children are dying because there are no robust search and rescue capacities deployed to prevent such deaths. And children are dying because they’re so desperate in their countries and unable to seek protection in countries they cross.”
She pressured: “These deaths are absolutely preventable.”
Regarding the determine of the kids who take these perilous journeys alone, Knaus stated that their numbers tripled in comparison with final 12 months as practically 3,000 kids made the crossing alone-71% of all kids making the crossing.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
