Hundreds of migrant children ‘face abuse at European borders’

According to Save the Children charity, hundreds of unaccompanied minors face violence and abuse while traveling across the EU borders.

The charity says there are countless cases of suffered or witnessed atrocities, especially along the Balkans route.

A new report by the charity, Hidden in Plain Sight contains interviews with migrant children in Italy and organisations which support them. The statements were collected close to the World Refugee Day.

The charity is demanding that Europe provides the children safe passages and protects the children from violence and abuse.

Only in April, 107 unaccompanied children arrived to Italy through the Balkan route. Weeks later 24 of them could continue their journey and were pushed back by the French border police. In France, the date of birth of the children was changed and they were pushed back to Italy. Recently Italian police handled minors as adults, so they could be brought back to the Slovenian side of the border.

In Italy alone, there were 6633 registered unaccompanied children at the end of April, mostly male. Girls were coming mainly from West African countries.

Raffaela Milano, manager at Save the Children Italia says the European Member States should make these children a valuable part of society. Policies need to be implemented to ensure the protection of unaccompanied children and also the schooling.