Migrant Children Rescued off Coast of Libya

The Central Mediterranean has emerged as a hotspot for migration. (Wikimedia Commons)

Libyan authorities intercepted 114 unaccompanied migrant children at sea on April 27. According to the United Nations (UN), the children were attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe when they were spotted by members of the Libyan Coast Guard and brought to shore. 

The unaccompanied minors were among 125 children rescued on April 27, an unusually high figure for just one day. “The number is incredibly alarming—it is the most that have been picked up in a single day this year and certainly one of the highest we have ever recorded,” said Juliette Touma, regional chief of communications for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. 

The children will likely be sent to detention centers constructed by the Libyan government in order to house the flow of refugees and migrants coming from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Approximately 1,100 children are held in these centers, which have a reputation for overcrowding and poor conditions.

Following the news of the rescue, UNICEF called on the Libyan government to release all children in detention and eliminate the confinement of migrants. “The majority of those rescued are sent to overcrowded detention centers in Libya under extremely difficult conditions and with no or limited access to water and health services,” UNICEF said in a statement. “Those in detention are cut off from clean water, electricity, education, health care, and adequate sanitation facilities…Violence and exploitation are rampant.”

The rescue comes just one week after a rubber boat carrying migrants capsized off the Libyan coast. More than 120 asylum seekers are presumed dead, which would be the highest fatality count in a shipwreck reported this year.  

Libyan waters are some of the most heavily trafficked and perilous waters on the planet. At least 350 people have died or gone missing in the Central Mediterranean in this year alone. “The Central Mediterranean continues to be one of the deadliest and most dangerous migration routes in the world,” according to UNICEF. Last year, some 1,400 migrants died or went missing in the journey across the Mediterranean to Europe. 

The high number of refugees intercepted off Libya in recent weeks may not represent an anomaly, as experts worry that the relative safety of the summer months and unremitting conflict across Africa and the Middle East may spur increased attempts to migrate. 

“We are especially concerned that in the coming months as temperatures rise and the weather improves we will see increasing numbers of people including unaccompanied minors trying to reach Europe for a better life,” said UNICEF’s Touma.