3,500 Children Dead or Missing in Central Mediterranean in Past Decade: UNICEF Report

Rome: Some 3,500 children have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean trying to reach Italy in the last 10 years, UNICEF said Tuesday. Around 3,500 girls, boys, and adolescents have died or disappeared while attempting to cross the central Mediterranean migratory route to Italy in the last 10 years, according to the most recent estimates by the UN children’s agency.

According to Ansa News Agency, it is as if, for a decade, a child had lost their life every day. Around seven out of ten children face this journey without a parent or legal guardian, which means that the majority of minors who died or disappeared along this route were travelling alone.

Their journeys can be particularly dramatic: according to data collected through interviews, more than half of girls, boys, adolescents, and young people reported having suffered physical violence, and a third of having been held against their will.

Many of the children who try to cross the central Mediterranean, highlights UNICEF, flee from war, conflict, violence, and poverty, causes that continue to fuel forced migration and push them to seek safety and opportunity elsewhere.