UN children’s fund calls for protection of child refugees

2275 people were unaccounted for in the Mediterranean sea last year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Many are thought to have died on the treacherous central Mediterranean route, mainly used by smugglers from Tunisia and Libya aiming to reach Italy.

Among those fleeing their countries are children. After the most recent shipwreck left around 20 people missing, the UN children’s fund is sounding the alarm.

“In 2024, 60,000 people arrived in Italy, including 8,000 unaccompanied foreign minors. Despite the drop in arrivals compared to the previous year, the vulnerabilities among people who arrive do not decrease. They are people who are often fleeing, as we know, from conflict, violence and extreme poverty. They are girls and boys who represent 20% of the people who arrive, that is, one in five,” Andrea Iacomini, UNICEF Italian spokesperson, explains.

The agency is urging governments to prioritise the protection of child refugees; it is pushing for access to asylum services, legal pathways for reunification and co ordinated search and rescue missions.

“It is intolerable for a child to have to see their mother die in front of their eyes. It is intolerable that a child could die in seawater. And yet we've seen too many of them and we can't think every time it's the last time. Because from 2014 to today the numbers speak for themselves,” Iacomini says.

Under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Italy has clamped down on smuggling, and attempted to send migrants to detention centres in Albania while their asylum claims are processed.

According to Italy's interior ministry, in 2024, 66,317 migrants arrived in the country by sea, less than half as many as in 2023.