“Torture and Slavery” of Refugee Children on the Path to Europe
Many children fleeing to Europe through the central Mediterranean route face nightmares of torture, sexual abuse, and slavery. For this reason, UNICEF has called for creating a “safe and legal” pathway for entry into the European Union.
Refugees and migrants daily demonstrate their willingness to risk everything to reach Europe. However, Sandi Blanche, director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Brussels, emphasizes that during this journey, children and adolescents face the danger of exploitation, abuse, and slavery.
UNICEF, together with the “International Organization for Migration,” interviewed a total of 11,000 children and adolescents for its new report. Blanche states: “The picture these children present is horrifying. No child should face such conditions.” She continues: “In their accounts, children use concepts such as torture, being shot to death, murder, sexual assault, and slavery.”
Double Danger in the Absence of Guardianship
Sandi Blanche emphasizes in an interview with the German ARD network’s Brussels office that the danger is twofold for children who travel to Europe unaccompanied or without a guardian. According to her, it is rare that adolescents do not embark on this perilous route with little money, with the intention of working in Libya to cover the costs of continuing their journey to Europe.
The UNICEF children’s fund director in Brussels speaks of her conversation with two brothers who, along with 200 other Africans, worked full-time on a farm for approximately two months. According to Blanche, they were beaten, threatened, and locked up at night so they could not escape.
Out of every 10 children, 8 children reported exploitation and abuse on the central Mediterranean route (the Libya-to-Italy route). This is the result of new research published under the title “Harrowing Journeys.”
Departure Out of Desperation
The UNICEF director speaks of a “very high number” of such cases. The UN children’s fund wants to use its new research to draw the attention of the European Union to this catastrophe. According to Blanche, one of the aims of such research is to increase Europe’s attention to the growing number of traumatized children.
Beyond this, according to this UNICEF official, while this institution understands the arguments of opponents, it believes that Europe should open more legal and safer pathways for entry into its continent. Critics of this view believe that “legal pathways” lead to greater attraction to Europe for refugees and migrants and result in more migration.
However, according to Sandi Blanche, in the era of modern media, children are well aware of the dangers of the journey: “They depart out of desperation, and by closing our borders, we do not end their desperation.”
This UNICEF director ultimately warned that Europe should not return children and adolescents to Libya or another country whose security they threaten.
Source: DW
