Children face beatings, rape, death trying to reach Europe - UNICEF

GENEVA, June 14 (Reuters) - Migrant children making the
perilous journey to Europe to escape war and poverty face
possible beatings, rape and forced labour in addition to risk of
drowning in the Mediterranean, the United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.
Minors account for a growing percentage of migrants and
refugees, particularly those trying to reach Italy by sea from
Libya, it said in a report, "Danger Every Step of the Way".
Of the roughly 206,200 people who arrived in Europe by sea
this year to June 4, one in three was a child, it said, citing
figures from the U.N. refugee agency.
"Every step of the journey is fraught with danger, all the
more so for the nearly one in four children travelling without a
parent or guardian," UNICEF said.
That ratio was far higher on boats from Libya, where more
than nine out of ten children were unaccompanied. UNICEF said
there were almost 235,000 migrants and refugees in Libya and
956,000 in the Sahel, many or most hoping to go to Europe.
UNICEF said that there was "strong evidence that criminal
human trafficking networks were targeting the most vulnerable,
in particular women and children.
"Italian social workers claim that both boys and girls are
sexually assaulted and forced into prostitution while in Libya,
and that some of the girls were pregnant when they arrived in
Italy, having been raped," it said.
The U.N. refugee agency has said the flow of people from
Turkey to Greece has slowed hugely but dealing with migrants now
stranded along the route remains a huge challenge.
UNICEF said many children had fallen between the cracks of
overstretched asylum systems and their cases should be a
priority.
"All too often children are held behind bars - in detention
facilities or in police custody - because of a lack of space in
child protection centres and limited capacity for identifying
alternative solutions," it said.
U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has decried a
"worrying rise" in detentions of migrants in Greece and Italy
and urged authorities to find alternatives to confining children
while asylum requests are processed. L8N1951GW
Authorities in some countries take up to two years to
evaluate a child's request for asylum, and processes to reunify
families can be equally slow, UNICEF said.
Once in Europe, migrants and refugees are often housed in
sports halls, former military barracks or other temporary
shelters, sometimes without access to schooling and
psychological support, it said.
Some have faced xenophobic attacks, hate speech and
stigmatisation, it said, citing 45 arson attacks on refugee
shelters in Germany during the first half of this year.