crisis and the numbers. Posted on 01 March 2016 at 10:17 Sarah Sarah Crowe, spokeswoman for UNICEF, told Euronews (you can listen to the full 21-minute interview here) men had made the crossing in 2015 and that their families were now joining them. She added: “One mother I spoke to had given birth on the border of Turkey and Greece and she had her 15-day old baby with her and she was going to meet her husband in Germany. This tends to be a story you hear a lot. Families looking to reunite. “Sadly we have seen children continue to drown in the Mediterranean. It has become now one of the most dangerous bodies of water in the world. Two children are dying every single day, on average. “And that’s just an intolerable tragedy that children can escape war and conflict with the hope of this odyssey and new life in a new country, only to die at sea. “Our message is really that there has to be much stronger emphasis on enhancing the safety of these routes.” MOAS, an NGO dedicated to saving the lives of migrants and refugees at sea, says safety of the refugee boats are worse than ever. Christopher Catrambone, the charity’s founder, said: “What we are witnessing in the Aegean Sea is even more horrendous than what we experienced in the [central] Mediterranean. “Due to the shorter distances, smugglers take increased risks at the expense of the refugees, often giving them worthless lifejackets and inflatable boats that simply cannot reach shore.” Map: Migrant children deaths at sea since Alan Kurdi tragedy Click the coloured icons or zoom in for more detail. Approximate locations only. Where data is sketchy, nearest land location chosen. Source: International Organization for Migration Slow progress Three weeks after the photograph of Alan Kurdi hit the headlines, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker released a statement: “The first priority today is and must be addressing the refugee crisis. “The decision to relocate 160,000 people from the most affected Member States is a historic first and a genuine, laudable expression of European solidarity. It cannot be the end of the story, however. It is time for further, bold, determined and concerted action by the European Union, by its institutions and by all its Member States.” Despite Juncker’s words, half a year later, just 583 of the 160,000 refugees have been relocated. Ms Crowe said slow progress in terms of relocation and asylum applications was leaving child refugees in an ‘extremely vulnerable situation’. She said: “When it comes to children in particular, we’ve seem them being delayed and unaccompanied minors are not sure where they can go and what their rights are. “Therefore they are extremely vulnerable to being trafficked. “Talk of relocation and other efforts really needs to take into account the reality of the sheer scale and scope of the crisis and the numbers.”Crowe, spokeswoman for UNICEF, told Euronews (you can listen to the full 21-minute interview here) men had made the crossing in 2015 and that their families were now joining them. She added: “One mother I spoke to had given birth on the border of Turkey and Greece and she had her 15-day old baby with her and she was going to meet her husband in Germany. This tends to be a story you hear a lot. Families looking to reunite. “Sadly we have seen children continue to drown in the Mediterranean. It has become now one of the most dangerous bodies of water in the world. Two children are dying every single day, on average. “And that’s just an intolerable tragedy that children can escape war and conflict with the hope of this odyssey and new life in a new country, only to die at sea. “Our message is really that there has to be much stronger emphasis on enhancing the safety of these routes.” MOAS, an NGO dedicated to saving the lives of migrants and refugees at sea, says safety of the refugee boats are worse than ever. Christopher Catrambone, the charity’s founder, said: “What we are witnessing in the Aegean Sea is even more horrendous than what we experienced in the [central] Mediterranean. “Due to the shorter distances, smugglers take increased risks at the expense of the refugees, often giving them worthless lifejackets and inflatable boats that simply cannot reach shore.” Map: Migrant children deaths at sea since Alan Kurdi tragedy Click the coloured icons or zoom in for more detail. Approximate locations only. Where data is sketchy, nearest land location chosen. Source: International Organization for Migration Slow progress Three weeks after the photograph of Alan Kurdi hit the headlines, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker released a statement: “The first priority today is and must be addressing the refugee crisis. “The decision to relocate 160,000 people from the most affected Member States is a historic first and a genuine, laudable expression of European solidarity. It cannot be the end of the story, however. It is time for further, bold, determined and concerted action by the European Union, by its institutions and by all its Member States.” Despite Juncker’s words, half a year later, just 583 of the 160,000 refugees have been relocated. Ms Crowe said slow progress in terms of relocation and asylum applications was leaving child refugees in an ‘extremely vulnerable situation’. She said: “When it comes to children in particular, we’ve seem them being delayed and unaccompanied minors are not sure where they can go and what their rights are. “Therefore they are extremely vulnerable to being trafficked. “Talk of relocation and other efforts really needs to take into account the reality of the sheer scale and scope of the crisis and the numbers.”
