* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
More than nine out of 10 refugee and migrant children arriving in Europe this year through Italy are unaccompanied.
For those forced to flee violence and oppression, endure dangerous and traumatic journeys and receive an often hostile reception, family is all that remains as a link to normal life. Even at the best of times, family is the bedrock of our lives, giving comfort, security, and love. But for children who have had to flee war and oppression alone or have become separated from their family along the way, they face life without this security at a time they need it the most.
There are different reasons children can find themselves alone as a refugee. Some become separated from family during the treacherous journey; others are sent with smugglers by parents desperate to ensure their children’s safety and many children are at risk of being exploited by traffickers throughout their journey. Before leaving their home country, many have endured trauma, poverty, and lack of access to education.
While in flight, they suffer nightmarish hardships and dangers. More than nine out of 10 refugee and migrant children arriving in Europe this year through Italy are unaccompanied. Unicef has found that 7,009 unaccompanied children made the crossing from North Africa to Italy in the first five months of the year, twice as many as last year. Many of these children find themselves in in the camps of Calais and Dunkirk.
A Unicef study published today reveals the dire situation for children living in the French camps.It shows a frank and disturbing picture of the awful abuses happening to children right on our doorstep. And the hard reality is that some of the children in Calais might have been spared if the better efforts were made by the British government to reunite them with family members in the UK.
Bilal*, a 16-year-old boy from Daraa, Syria, has led our campaign. He’s one of the lucky few to have been reunited with a relative living in the UK, but he remembers the ordeal of his journey, and the seemingly endless wait to reach safety.
“Even though the law says I can be with my brother, I ended up stuck in the Jungle in Calais for seven months,” explains Bilal. “It took more than a year from escaping Syria, to finally reach my brother in the UK.
“The worst part of my journey was being in Calais because most people there were subjected to violence and humiliation. Every day people would try to find ways of leaving. My friends and I tried to get onto a train to get away – I saw two friends die under that train.”
Bilal is now living in London with his brother. But he regularly speaks to other children he met in the camp who are still waiting. Instead of bed sheets, they have tarpaulin. Instead of families, they are surrounded by traffickers.
There are at least 157 unaccompanied children in the Calais camp who have a right to be with their families in the UK. Bilal and Unicef UK want them to be reunited in time to start the school year.
In the UK, Unicef UK is calling on the UK Government to take immediate action to protect these children and reunite unaccompanied refugee children in Europe with their families in the UK, so they don’t have to experience the horrors of the camps in France, or the conditions throughout the rest of Europe, for a prolonged period of time.
Take action and help reunite refugee children with their family in the UK: unicef.uk/FamilyReunion
*name changed to protect identity
Lily Caprani is the Deputy Executive Director of Unicef UK
