UNICEF urges protection of children caught in European refugee crisis

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday called for specific steps to protect children who were caught in the current European refugee crisis.

In a statement issued here on child migrant and refugee crisis in Europe, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said: "Heart-breaking images of children's bodies washing up on the shores of Europe ... lying suffocated in the backs of trucks crossing borders ... being passed over barbed wire fences by desperate parents."

"As the migrant and refugee crisis in Europe deepens, these will not be the last shocking images to ricochet around the world on social media, on our televisions screens and on the front pages of our newspapers," he said. "But it is not enough for the world to be shocked by these images. Shock must be matched by action."

The number of "exhausted and desperate" women and children making their way from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq through the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia seeking refuge in Europe has tripled in the past three months, meaning some 3,000 passing through the land-locked Balkan country every day, UNICEF said on Tuesday.

The Europe is gripped with a refugee crisis as the continent is facing a 750 percent surge in the influx of refugees. According to the UN refugee agency's latest figures, more than 225,000 people have traveled across the Mediterranean to EU shores, with at least 2,100 dying along the way.

The Greek government said that it can not go alone to adequately care and accommodate those fleeing war zones, and the humanitarian emergency has exceeded the capabilities of the crisis-torn economy and represents an EU-level problem.

The vast majority of arrivals coming from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, end up on the Greek islands of Lesvos, Chios, Kos, Samos, and Leros, where they are faced with inadequate medical facilities, and accommodation that can offer neither water nor food.

"...For the plight of these children is neither by their choice nor within their control," Lake said. "They need protection. They have a right to protection."

Lake called for the efforts to protect these children through the provision of essential services at all times -- including health care, food, emotional support, and education -- and adequate shelter for migrants and refugees that keeps families together.

Efforts also must be made to deploy adequate numbers of trained child welfare experts to support children and their families, he said.

The UNICEF chief also urged measures to be taken to continue search and rescue operations -- not only at sea, but also on land, as families move across countries -- and make every effort to prevent the abuse and exploitation of migrant and refugee children.

Meanwhile, it is also important to put the best interests of children first in all decisions made regarding these children -- including in asylum cases, he said.

"Our hearts go out today to the families who have lost children -- off the coasts, on the shores, and along the roadsides of Europe. As the debates on policies proceed, we must never lose sight of the deeply human nature of this crisis," he said.

"Nor of the children," he said. "Nor of its scale. At least a quarter of those seeking refuge in Europe are children -- in the first six months of this year, more than 106,000 children claimed asylum in Europe."

"And we should never forget what lies behind so many of the stories of families seeking sanctuary in Europe: terrible conflicts such as that in Syria, which already has forced some two million children to flee their country. Only an end to these conflicts can bring an end to the misery of so many," he added. Endit