Consejo de Europa
A new report focusing
on the protection of children affected by the refugee crisis from
sexual exploitation and abuse has been issued. Non-comprehensive data
collection, inadequate reception conditions, problems with age
verification and with identification of victims are among the key
challenges identified in the report.
While there is no aggregated data available on the total number of
children affected by the refugee crisis in Europe, the European Network
of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC)
assesses that in 2015 at least 337,000 children were registered as
asylum seekers, 88,300 of which were unaccompanied. The states surveyed
encountered many more difficulties in providing data or estimates on the
number of children who did not seek asylum.
As for the number of victims of sexual abuse or exploitation, only
very few (*) out of 41 countries surveyed provided figures, while others
said there were either no victims or they had no data to substantiate
this. Most Parties acknowledged, however, that they are aware that there
are more cases of sexual abuse than official numbers suggest. This
situation can be attributed both to the lack of capacity on the part of
authorities, and to the non-reporting of the violence on the part of
children themselves.
“Underreporting of sexual abuse and exploitation of refugee children
and identification of victims is a major challenge,” said the Council of
Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland. “We realise the strain the
refugee crisis has put on the member states’ authorities. However, we
encourage governments to work with NGOs and set up effective data
collection and child-friendly counseling services which will lead to
better reporting of crimes and identification of victims”, he said.
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