According to the IRC briefing, women and children – who have made up 59% of arrivals in Greece since January 2016 – are experiencing serious and varied forms of gender-based violence, including rape and sexual exploitation.
IRC calls for urgent action to improve the safety and protection of women and girls in Europe and proposes five steps action plan:
1. Governments hosting refugees and asylum seekers must allow non-government organisations access to camps and transit sites so that they may treat survivors of genderbased violence;
2. Donors should provide funds specifically for responding to gender-based violence;
3. All actors involved in the humanitarian response in Europe need to implement minimum standards across all programme sectors to mitigate gender-based violence and reduce women’s and girls’ risk of abuse and exploitation;
4. European leaders should provide safe alternative pathways to Europe as the closed borders leave women and girls at high risk of being exploited by smugglers or trafficked.