The global number of refugee and migrant
children moving alone has reached a record high, increasing nearly five-fold
since 2010, UNICEF said in a new report made available to NaijaAgroNet.
At least some 300,000 unaccompanied and
separated children were recorded in some 80 countries in the combined years of
2015 and 2016, up from 66,000 in 2010 and 2011, reports NaijaAgroNet.
The report entitled ‘A
Child is a Child: Protecting
children on the move from violence, abuse and exploitation’ was
recently presented at a global snapshot of refugee and migrant children, the
motivations behind their journeys and the risks they face along the way.
The report also showed that an increasing number
of these children are taking highly dangerous routes, often at the mercy of
smugglers and traffickers, to reach their destinations, clearly justifying the
need for a global protection system to keep them safe from exploitation, abuse
and death.
UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth said
that one child moving alone is one too many, and yet today, there are a
staggering number of children doing just that, stressing that as adults are
failing to protect them.
“Ruthless smugglers and traffickers are
exploiting their vulnerability for personal gain, helping children to cross
borders, only to sell them into slavery and forced prostitution. It is
unconscionable that we are not adequately defending children from these predators,”
Forsyth said.
The report includes the story of Mary, a
17-year-old unaccompanied minor from Nigeria, who experienced the trauma of
being trafficked firsthand during her horrific journey through Libya to Italy.
When describing the smuggler turned trafficker who offered to help her, she
said, “Everything (he) said, that we would be treated well, and that we would
be safe, it was all wrong. It was a lie.” Mary was trapped in Libya for more
than three months where she was abused. “He said to me if I didn’t sleep with
him he would not bring me to Europe. He raped me.”
Uj N. Dominic/GEE
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