Nearly 3,500 Children Have Died in the Mediterranean Since 2015: UNICEF
Migrants rescued in the Mediterranean. X/ @ajplus
April 15, 2025 Hour: 8:09 am
Most children attempting to cross the sea are fleeing war, conflict, violence, and poverty.
On Tuesday, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) released data showing that nearly 3,500 girls, boys, and adolescents have died or gone missing while attempting to cross the central Mediterranean migration route to Italy over the past decade.
RELATED:
“Approximately seven out of ten children undertake this journey without a parent or legal guardian, which means that the majority of minors who have died or gone missing along this route were traveling alone,” it said.
According to data collected through interviews, more than half of the children, adolescents, and young people reported having suffered physical violence, and one-third said they had been held against their will. Many of the children attempting to cross the central Mediterranean are fleeing war, conflict, violence, and poverty—factors that continue to fuel forced migration and push them to seek safety and opportunities elsewhere.
Regina De Dominicis, Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia and Special Coordinator for the Refugee and Migrant Response in Europe, recalled the tragedy that occurred on April 18, 2015, off the Italian coast—one of the deadliest ever recorded in the Mediterranean—where only 28 of the 700 to 900 people crammed onto the vessel survived.
“Ten years ago, a shipwreck off the coast of Italy killed more than 1,000 people and shocked the entire region,” she said, and called on governments “to protect the rights and best interests of girls and boys, in accordance with their obligations under national and international law.”
UNICEF noted that over the past 10 years, at least 20,803 people have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean. However, many shipwrecks along this dangerous migration route from North Africa go unrecorded, making “the true number of dead or missing virtually impossible to verify, and likely much higher.”
The UN agency added that while the adoption of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum “could lead to a more organized system for managing migration flows, its implementation must be carried out in full compliance with the legal obligations to protect the best interests of minors.”
Therefore, UNICEF is calling for “more effective and child-sensitive search and rescue operations,” as well as “immediate legal assistance and strong protections” upon arrival, emphasizing that “restrictions on freedom of movement must never result in the detention of children in facilities.”
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
