Willa Frej - An Unprecedented Number Of Unaccompanied Children Are Seeking Asylum In Europe
One tragic consequence
of war is that some children have to flee their homes — often without their
parents — in search of peace and safety. Europe has experienced an
unprecedented surge in the number of unaccompanied children arriving on its shores in
the last two years, according to Pew Research Center data.
The number of
unaccompanied minors seeking asylum jumped from 13,800 to 23,200 between 2013
and 2014, Pew said Tuesday. The think tank has been tracking these figures
since 2008 through Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical agency. That number more than
quadrupled last year, hitting a record 96,000.
“The 2015 total alone
accounts for nearly half (48 percent) of unaccompanied minors that have entered
Europe since 2008,” Pew said. Around 7 percent of all first-time European
asylum applications in 2015 were from unaccompanied minors, the highest rate
Pew has ever reported.
A sizable portion of
these children — 76,700, or 39 percent — have come from Afghanistan, Pew
said. Almost 20,000 have come from Syria, and thousands more have traveled from
Somalia, Eritrea and Iraq. Three-quarters of
unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Europe last year were males between
the ages of 14 and 17. Their destination of
choice: Sweden, which received almost 40 percent of the unaccompanied minors
arriving in Europe last year. Sweden took in 163,000 total asylum seekers last year, the most per capita of
any European country.
Although many
governments are grappling with unmanageable numbers of asylum seekers, some are
beginning to take action on unaccompanied minors. U.K. Prime Minister
David Cameron pledged last week to take in more
unaccompanied children. Children who were registered in Greece, Italy or
France before the EU struck
a deal with Turkey to lessen the number of people coming in will be
eligible for resettlement in Britain.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/unaccompanied-children-asylum-seekers-europe_us_57332c8de4b016f37897a290?section=india