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.
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.
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