Migrant children die in the Mediterranean sea in full view and the world deliberately ignores it

The number of children who lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe doubled in the first half of the year with respect to the same period in 2022, reported this Friday the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

That means that 289 boys and girls died between January and June of 2023 by attempting that journey.

The number is equivalent to about eleven children killed every week“much more than what we hear in the news headlines,” said Vera Knaus, UNICEF Lead on Migration and Displacement, at a press conference in Geneva.

willful ignorance

“We cannot continue to ignore what is happening, remain silent when almost 300 children, an entire plane full of children are dying in the waters between Europe and Africa in just six months,” he emphasized.

UNICEF explained that the conflicts and climate change they are forcing increasing numbers of children to embark on the perilous sea voyage from North Africa to Europe.

According to agency calculations, some 11,600 children crossed over in the first six months of the year, an amount that is also almost double that registered during the same period in 2022.

However, he warned that the actual number of child victims is likely to be higher, since many shipwrecks in the central Mediterranean leave no survivors or they are not recorded.

Knaus considered that given the silence around many of these preventable deaths, it can be said that the world “deliberately ignores what is happening.”

“Children are dying not just in front of our eyes; they also die while we seem to keep our eyes closed. Hundreds of girls and boys are drowning in the inaction of the world”, he pointed out, stressing that the central Mediterranean is one of the deadliest migratory routes for children.

Thousands of children travel alone

In addition, many boys are making the journey without their parents or guardians, and girls traveling alone are especially vulnerable to violence throughout the trip, he added.

During the first three months of the year, 3,300 children unaccompanied or separated from the adult they were traveling with arrived in Europe through the central Mediterranean route, more than 70% of the total number of minors who completed the journey.

To respond to the escalation of the crisisUNICEF is helping countries strengthen protection systems child, social protection and migration and asylum. Agency staff are also working with governments to provide inclusive support and services to all children, regardless of their legal status or that of their parents.

preventable deaths

“These deaths can be avoided,” Klaus said, adding that the cause of these tragic deaths are, on the one hand, complex emergencies, conflicts and climate risks that expel children from their homes and, on the other, the lack of political action to allow safe access to asylum and protect the rights and lives of children regardless of their origin or mode of travel.

UNICEF pointed out that the countries of the region and of the European Union must do more to protect vulnerable children at sea, adding that protection must extend to countries of origin, transit and destination.

He also stressed the need for open safe, legal and accessible pathways for children to seek protection and reunite with their families, by expanding access to family reunification, refugee resettlement or other humanitarian visas.

He also argued that countries should intensify the coordination of search and rescue operations at sea and ensure rapid disembarkation in safe places.

Knaus recalled that the duty to rescue a ship in distress is a fundamental rule in international maritime lawand stressed that refusals at sea or land borders are violations of national, international and European laws.