Vaccines save millions of lives, and yet misinformation and limited availability have left large numbers of children at risk. In Europe, migrants will continue to be more vulnerable than host populations unless they have access to immunization, experts say.
UNICEF has started its Activate Talks project in Italy. Their goal: To give a voice to young people and in particular migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. The project consists of six meetings in the course of a year on various topics central to the life of adolescents.
The UN children's fund says acute malnutrition affects an estimated two million children in Afghanistan, and hundreds of thousands are at risk of death from its most severe form. Unicef says it urgently needs money to address the problem.
In Afghanistan, the number of attacks on schools has tripled in the past year. The UN says the hopes and dreams of a generation of children are being destroyed.
UNICEF said that in the first three months of 2019, 3,800 children arrived in Europe by sea and that one in every four migrant arrivals was a minor. In 2018, the figure was one in every five arrivals.
UNICEF has voiced its concern about the over 1,000 minors among the 3,000 migrants held in Libyan detention centers in conflict zones. ''They have already suffered all types of torture and the worst is feared,'' said the Italian branch spokesman.
She fled warn-torn Syria in a wheelchair. Now, Nujeen Mustafa spoke at the UN on behalf of other disabled Syrians.
The city of Adana in Southern Turkey near the border with Syria is indicative of the situation of the currently 3.5 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey, including hundreds of thousands of minors who are often not enrolled in school. But a UNICEF program aims to change that with money from the EU-Turkey deal.
March 15, 2019 marked the beginning of the ninth year of the war in Syria. UNICEF is commemorating the date by recalling that 8 million children have been affected by the war, five million of whom need humanitarian assistance within Syria's borders, and 2.5 of whom are refugees in neighboring countries.
A report by UNICEF said that migrant children become more vulnerable when they enter the protection system in Spain. And that's despite the fact that minors in Spain are protected by policies for children and not the regular migration policies.
A total of 10,787 unaccompanied foreign minors are currently residing in Italy, down from the 18,000 registered at the end of 2017, Unicef said. Overall, 3,536 minors travelled to Italy by sea on their own, the organization said. Thanks to its program in Italy, Unicef has supported 7,000 young migrants and refugees in 2018.
Unicef and the Lego Foundation have launched an initiative in Jordan to help young Syrian refugee children living in the country and local children. The goal: To help the youngsters learn through play, Lego brick by Lego brick.