Children's safety at risk as Italy pushes migrant boats back to Libya

Children who have fled fighting and poverty in Africa by boat are at risk from Italy’s policy of turning the boats back, say aid workers. The Italian government is pushing back boats carrying migrants from Libya without first looking at the needs of the people on board, which is a serious risk to the safety and lives of thousands of migrant children, it is claimed. Children travelling on the boats– some as young as 14 - are now being sent straight back to Libya. This means they are denied the protection, healthcare and emotional support they need in Italy, said the charity, Save the Children. And they are at risk of being locked up in Libyan detention centres when they are forced back it said. "Many of the children on the boats from Libya had been forced to travel thousands of miles, often alone, to escape conflict and poverty in countries such as Somalia, Eritrea and Nigeria,” Fosca Nomis, Save the Children spokesperson told Reuters news agency. “In ten months we received over 2,000 children entitled to receive protection in Italy. They were often exhausted, hungry, severely dehydrated and terrified after the journey. Many children have recounted harrowing stories, of rape and of having to see dead family members thrown out of the boat.

“Many of the child migrants had been locked up in adult detention centres before boarding the boats for Italy, and we are afraid they may be returned there when they arrive in Libya. Conditions are notoriously bad. Human rights organisations have persistently reported allegations of torture and ill-treatment at the centres in a country which has not signed the Geneva Refugee Convention.” Libya has been a major crossroads for migrants from Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa wanting to reach Europe. But it has no functioning asylum system and is not part of the 1951 UN convention, which protects refugees.

Nearly 37,000 immigrants landed on Italian shores last year, according to figures from the BBC. But Italy’s blocking of migrant boats breaks not only Italian law but also international law, especially the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, says the children’s charity. Only last week, a group of 89 migrants on a dinghy in the Sicily Channel was ferried back to Libya by an Italian warship. The migrants among whom were nine women were spotted 30 miles off the Italian island of Lampedusa. They were intercepted by the Orione, which immediately took them back to Libyan waters.

By Hayley Jarivs for SOS Children