The Story of Humanity
By: Ece Uyguç
Tags: European Union, UN, Politics, Missing Children, Migrants

The Story of Humanity

Photo by Julie Ricard on Unsplash

I was shocked to hear about the news on TV that there were over 18,000 missing children from 2018 to 2020 in Europe who migrated from their homeland. I felt helpless of hearing such news and not being able to do anything about it.

Then, I started to research about this tragic issue and learn more about what was really going on. I watched related documentaries, read affiliated news, and examined some analytic data to find out more so that I could inform other people who were unaware of the situation.

I am very fortunate to find the Medium writing platform last month to spread and share my messages to a wide range of audiences from all over the world. Sharing such dramatic issues on Medium gives me the opportunity to create public awareness and enables like-minded people to connect and find solutions together. Let me share what I have found out so far about this serious matter.

Who are unaccompanied migrant children?

Unaccompanied migrant children are the ones either encouraged by their parents or various other connections to leave their countries for higher living standards and more freedom in developed countries. Some depart from their homeland to reunite with their family members or relatives who have previously migrated to developed countries.

There is no precise data concerning the number of unaccompanied migrant minors, however, there were 153,300 children under 18 outside of their own countries and registered as either unaccompanied or separated from their parents among the refugee population at the end of 2019, according to the UN records.

The runaway journey of migrant children

Children coming from distant countries like Algeria, Morocco, Guinea, Nigeria, Yemen, or Afghanistan start a long, exhausting, and dramatic journey to reach Europe. Some come from highlands on the backs of horses while others hide inside ships’ stores in darkness for days or even weeks on their way to reach new opportunities.

Every child has a unique escape story. Fleeing their country of origin and being part of a tough, ambiguous journey is traumatic for children, let alone the hardship of being on their own without their parents. The preparation process before they leave for this journey burdens indescribable anxiety and pain on these children. Even worse, some of them get attacked or robbed on their way.

18,000 unaccompanied children missing in Europe

According to the cross-border journalism collective Lost in Europe, published data indicated that 18,292 unaccompanied child migrants went missing between January 2018 and December 2020. Some 5,768 migrant children disappeared in 13 European countries last year alone.

As stated by this investigation, 90% were boys, and one-sixth of them were younger than 15. As the data journalist of Lost in Europe, Adriana Homolova stated that the number should be much higher since they did not collect the data of 2020 from all the affiliated countries.

International Missing Children’s Day (May 25)

May 25th is an international day commemorating missing children in the world, the same day former POTUS Ronald Reagan designated National Missing Children’s Day of the US in 1983. Due to these stressing numbers of missing children, Mind the Children raised attention with a special episode hosting data journalist Adriana Homolova from Lost in Europe and Veronika Pisorn from Defence for Children Netherlands on May 25th of this year.

To commemorate this day, Mind the Children also carried out a conversation about this critical issue with Aagje Ieven, Secretary-General of Missing Children Europe, one of the organizations that initiated the annual International Missing Children’s Day.

Regarding the recent data collected by Lost in Europe, Aagje Ieven stated:

“For us, they are very important because it is so difficult to get those figures. The European Migration Network reported the 30,000 figure a few years ago, but that was 30,000 compared to an overall number of asylum applications received of 230,000. This new figure from Lost in Europe of 18,292 is compared to an overall number of asylum applications of 52,000. So the proportion is quite a lot bigger compared to the overall migration streams than it was a few years ago. And these are only numbers from ten countries, so relatively the problem is getting worse.”

To solve this serious matter, the Secretary-General of Missing Children Europe believes that affiliated organizations should enlighten the public that migration is not something to be afraid of and that it has brought humanity to better places. She calls the situation “the story of humanity.”

Children’s Legal Rights

All the children in the world have their legal rights to grow up healthy and safe. Nearly every country worldwide signed and adopted a convention called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, also known as CRC, on November 20th, 1989. These rights are specialized for children because children are more vulnerable than adults under any circumstances. The rights of refugee children are also articulated in Article 22 of this comprehensive convention by this means:

Article 22 1. States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure that a child who is seeking refugee status or who is considered a refugee in accordance with applicable international or domestic law and procedures shall, whether unaccompanied or accompanied by his or her parents or by any other person, receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance in the enjoyment of applicable rights set forth in the present Convention and in other international human rights or humanitarian instruments to which the said States are Parties. 2. For this purpose, States Parties shall provide, as they consider appropriate, co-operation in any efforts by the United Nations and other competent intergovernmental organisations or nongovernmental organisations co-operating with the United Nations to protect and assist such a child and to trace the parents or other members of the family of any refugee child in order to obtain information necessary for reunification with his or her family. In cases where no parents or other members of the family can be found, the child shall be accorded the same protection as any other child permanently or temporarily deprived of his or her family environment for any reason, as set forth in the present Convention.

Generally, every unaccompanied minor refugee arriving in Europe has to be registered. Customs officers or the police refer these registered children to child protection authorities. Each child is assigned a legal representative under the asylum procedure. In 2011, the EU implemented new anti-trafficking provisions to protect children and unaccompanied refugee minors from trafficking.

Why do these children go missing?

As to the estimates of the European Commission, most migrant children go missing before or during the asylum request. International Refugee Rights Association Director Atty. Abdullah Resul Demir assumes that children might have gone to other countries due to the fear of being rejected and deported.

He also puts forth some other reasons with regard to the disappearance of these children:

“Some of the minor refugees may have disappeared because of abuse, physical and sexual violence. Therefore, these children may have fallen into the hands of organized crime organizations. Europol even announced that some of the child refugees were captured by gangs and subjected to sexual abuse.”

What needs to be done to control the issue of missing foreign minors?

· First, this should be accepted as a crucial international issue because according to UNICEF data of 2018, it was determined that 32,500 refugees crossed to Greece by sea, and 18,000 refugees by land, risking their lives; and approximately one-third of these refugees are children.

· Politicians need to offer solutions that will solve the existing problems and new ones that may arise. These solutions should be auditable and be able to prevent the lack of registration of these children. Unregistered children are at risk of being hijacked by human traffickers.

· European states should strictly comply with the procedures set out in the CRC. The EU also has its procedures specifically for child migrants. However, the EU needs to warn its member states to take action and implement these existing procedures precisely.

· Psychosocial support is very important to ensure that the child can lead a life worthy of the dignity and innocence he/she deserves and to offer a healthy future to the communities in the host country.

· Education and socialization should be provided to overcome their traumas and to ease the adaptation process in the host country.

· Governments should provide extra security, protection, assistance, shelter, healthcare, and stability due to their vulnerability as child migrants and as potential victims to human traffickers or crime organizations.

· Cross-border coordination among police, social services, non-profit organizations, shelters, and volunteers should be enhanced.

· And above all, these children should not be discriminated based on their race. Whatever is done for a missing child of European origin, the same things should be done for them both legally and conscientiously.