In a “children’s cemetery” the Mediterranean has changed as according to Unicef ​​figures in the summer of 2023, the number of people who died or went missing trying to cross the sea tripled compared to 2022.

From June to August at least 990 people were shipwrecked in the central Mediterraneanthe world’s most dangerous migration route connecting North Africa to Europe.

This number is three times more than the 334 migrants who died in the same period in 2022, according to the report of the UN agency.

Although the total number of children who died in the Mediterranean is not clearly recorded – Unicef ​​recorded about a dozen each week in July – 11,600 “unaccompanied minors” tried to reach Italy from January to mid-September 2023 by boat , i.e. 60% more than the same period last year (7,200), the service said.

“The Mediterranean has become a graveyard for children and their future. The tragic death toll of children seeking asylum and safety in Europe is the result of political choices and an inadequate immigration system,” said Regina De Dominicis, UNICEF’s head of the issue.

Overall, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced yesterday, during a Security Council meeting dedicated to the crisis in the Mediterranean, that 2,500 migrants have lost their lives or gone missing from January 1 to September 24, 2023, a 50% increase over the same period last year.

Determination of age

The scenes from the arrival of thousands of immigrants on the small Italian island Lampedusa in mid-September they brought up again the issue of European cooperation for the management of migration flows.

With 8,500 people disembarking within three days on the island, outnumbering the population of Lampedusa, the arrivals of migrants caused a crisis on the island and a political storm in Italy, which adopted stricter measures.

The government of the Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni, head of a right-wing and far-right coalition, on Wednesday night approved a draft decree that paves the way for housing unaccompanied minors over the age of 16 in adult facilities. At the same time, it provides for the conduct of medical examinations to determine the age of minors.

The draft, which has not been approved by the parliament where the ruling coalition has an absolute majority, provides for the submission of unaccompanied minors to X-rays in order to determine their age. The goal: “It will no longer be possible for them to lie about their real age” in order to avoid possible deportation, Meloni said on Facebook.

A “worrying” measure, estimated Andrea Iacomini, representative of Unicef ​​Italy.

War, violence, poverty

The situation in the Mediterranean brought back the debate in Brussels on the reform of the asylum system of the 27 EU member states. The draft of the reform under consideration mainly foresees the strengthening of the external borders of the EU but also a solidarity mechanism between the member states for the relocation of the immigrants.

At the same time, the leaders of the nine Mediterranean member countries of the European Union are meeting today in Valletta, Malta, to coordinate their positions, mainly on the issue of immigration.

“Adopting a response at European level to support children and families” is “absolutely necessary so that other children do not suffer,” De Dominicis stressed.

According to Unicef, “war, conflict, violence and poverty” push children “to leave their countries of origin on their own”.

After passing through the dangers of “exploitation and abuse at every stage” of their journey, as well as the risk of shipwreck, those minors who manage to reach European shores are first “detained” in centers and then transferred to migrant reception facilities “in general lines closed”, complains Unicef.

The UN agency has counted 21,700 unaccompanied minors in these centers in Italy, compared to 17,700 a year ago.