In 2015, the picture of little Aylan Kurdi dead on a Turkish beach went global. Last January 15^th another small child passed away trying to cross the sea. She was 4 years old and it has hardly hit the news. She also left Turkey behind with her family in a boat and did not survive.

Data indicate that neither Aylan nor this Iraki girl are an exception. Only last weekend about 170 people lost their lifes in the Mediterranean. Some testimonies speak about children and a pregnant woman on-board, Unicef recalls.

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The father of the girl, Mohammed Fadil, told back in Turkey that their boat with about 45 people on-board (among them several children) had to confront strong waves on their way to Greece. He assures Greek Coast Guard agents approached and told them to stop the engine. They seemed to want to tow the boat to a save place, but then they began to turn violently in circles. “It was inhumane, they tried to kill us,” a broken father denounced in a statement reflected by the Turkish public news agency Anadolu.

Other testimonies also registered by Anadolu speak about violent manoeuvres of the Greek Coast Guard and they accused Hellenic agents of putting their lifes at risk. They were rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard, near their coast. By then, Mohammed Fadil’s daughter was already dead, according to the news agency.

The Hellenic Coast Guard has responded to the accusations assuring on the morning of January 15^th they detected a boat with a “considerable number of immigrants in Turkish territorial waters”. They say they informed Turkish authorities in accordance with the international law. A Greek boat and another one from Frontex attended the arrival of a Turkish coast guard vessel. Greek authorities assured they were not informed about a missing girl.

Fadil’s spouse and their other two children survived with him.

In 2016, the European Union signed a controversial treaty with Turkey to avoid more people arriving in search of asylum across to Greece. The 28 member states agreed to a 6,000 million Euros package for Ankara so it would stop the migrant flow and also to be able to give back those people who would still manage to reach Europe after the deal was signed.

29 children a day reach Europe crossing the sea

During the first two weeks of 2019, more than 400 children have reached European coasts across the Mediterranean, an average of 29 per day. Unicef asks European governments to protect them urgently and to provide a regional “predictable” solution which offers safe harbours to which migrants may arrive quickly.

The UN agency for children’s protection, warns that “freezing temperatures and rough waters” in winter make the already dangerous journey through the Mediterranean even worse. That is the reason why it is especially important to avoid maintaining rescued people out at sea waiting for a safe harbour to open up for them.

Minors have to face “violations of their most basic rights during their dangerous journeys at sea as well as when they arrive in Europe,” according to Unicef.

At the beginning of this year, at least six children had to wait adrift on a Sea Watch NGO boat, as the vessel had no permission to enter any port in Europe. Children on-board were on a limbo, some of them as long as 18 days, without urgent medical attendance and other basic services until they could finally disembark, Unicef regrets.

About 23,000 children arrived through the sea to Greece, Italy and Spain in 2018. Most of them fled from war, extreme poverty and persecution, Unicef stated.

This UN agency asks European governments as well to ameliorate the attention children get when they arrive on land and asks for more compromise on terms of resettlement which prioritize the minors’ well-being and family reunifications.

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La entrada A 4-year-old Iraqi girl died in the Mediterranean and (almost) nobody knows se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

Since a wave of violence against Rohingyas erupted less than two months ago, 320,000 children have arrived in Bangladesh, making up 60% of this Muslim minority refugees, according to Unicef. More than 2 out of 10 of them suffer malnutrition and 145,000 under the age of 5 are “on the verge” of suffering it, according to these organizations. In addition, every week there are 12,000 more children arriving.

More than 2 out of 10 children are malnourished and 145,000 children under 5 are “on the verge of suffering” malnutrition

“On the way we saw a lot of dead people dead, their heads and limbs chopped off”, said one of those affected to the BBC while getting into Bangladesh. The testimonies of other refugees collected by Save The Children indicate that their villages got completely burned, many people were killed and women raped while they fled.

Fatima was among those women. She left Myanmar with her three children after finding her husband dead in her village. “There have been times I have not been able to eat in three days because there is no food. My little son was about to die for lack of food”. Now she feels “happy” because she can finally cook something else than just lentils for her children.

Rohingya villages got completely burned, many people were killed and women raped while they fled. A third of this Muslim minority has already crossed into neighboring Bangladesh

The United Nations has described the Rohingya situation in Myanmar as “ethnic cleansing”, while Aung San Suu Kyi – the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and current de facto president of that country – is criticized for letting the army continue to perpetrate the attacks. The military continue to exercise much control in ancient Burma and it is estimated that one-third of the 1.2 million Rohingya Muslim people of Rakhine State in Myanmar has already crossed into Bangladesh.

“Many Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh have witnessed atrocities in Myanmar that no child should ever see, and all of them have suffered tremendous losses”, Unicef ​​Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement. “These children urgently need food, clean water, sanitation, and vaccines to protect them from illnesses that arise in emergencies. But they also need help to overcome all what they have already suffered”.

Rohinghya refugees watch their new homes in the refugee camp of Kutupalong (Bangladesh) in September 2017. © Unicef ​​/ LeMoyne

In the report Outcast and desperate: Rohingya refugee children face a perilous future, Unicef ​​shows how the majority of the refugees live in improvised and overcrowded settlements, with risk of diseases and lack of means to help the refugees. The United Nations organization for children indicates that the Government of Bangladesh is endeavoring to welcome them, but more aid is needed.

“In more than 20 years of humanitarian work I have never seen people in such extreme situations, especially children”

Unicef ​​and Save The Children agree that the greatest dangers now for Rohingya refugee children are cholera and malnutrition. “We are seeing an alarming number of children arriving desperately hungry and malnourished. Then, in the camps, these children do not have any kind of hygiene, they live surrounded by dirt, contaminated water and depending on the food portion they receive to survive”, said Unni Krishnan, director of the Save The Children Emergency Unit.

This NGO estimates that some 281,000 people urgently need food assistance to avoid malnutrition; including the already mentioned 145,000 children under 5 and more than 50,000 pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. Children are “at serious risk of contracting diseases such as cholera, which for children like these can be fatal”, warns Krishnan. “In more than 20 years of humanitarian work I have never seen people in such extreme situations, especially children.”

Rohingya refugees cross from Myanmar to Bangladesh in October 2017. © Unicef ​​/ LeMoyne

Burmese law denies nationality to its Rohingya inhabitants, who have endured “repression and discrimination” for decades, Human Rights Watch said. 120,000 of them continue to be displaced within their own country due to waves of violence in 2012 and 2016.

La entrada Thousands of Rohingya children are still in danger after fleeing violence in Myanmar se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

The 28 member states promised in Septembre 2015 to relocate 160,000 refugees hosted in Greece and Italy, although that only in that year more than 1 million people had arrived to the EU seeking asylum. By Septembre 20th of the present year, these countries had only received a total of 28,732 refugees, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Two years ago they also promised to host 20,000 refugees more, who would come relocated from the countries next to Syria: Lebannon, Jordan and Turkey. But from the total of all of them, la European Union has only relocated one in four refugees, according to the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR).

But there are more unknown and surprising facts which will help you have an overview of the situation in which these persons are. Take this test to discover it:

La entrada The most surprising facts about the refugee crisis se publicó primero en Salam Plan.