European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson says there are already reports of criminals taking orphans out of Ukraine’s orphanages, pretending to be their relatives as they cross the border for further trafficking, in the general refugee flow.
In this regard, she called for doing everything possible to protect the most vulnerable category of Ukrainian refugees – unaccompanied minors who may become victims of trafficking. She said this on Tuesday, speaking at the plenary session of the European Parliament on the issue of “Deterioration of the situation with refugees as a consequence of Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
“Let me raise the issue that causes me the greatest concern. It’s about children. We do not know exactly how many children arrived in the EU. From what I saw with my own eyes when I was at the border – I would guess that almost half of the two million may be children. These kids need to go to school, they need some kind of normal life. There is an urgent need to support children who are fleeing the war. But we also need to ensure that we can provide support to the most vulnerable children – unaccompanied children,” the European Commissioner said.
She said that the MEPs saw photographs of small children crossing the border “alone, with a small bag, without parents.” “Unfortunately, in this situation, we know that there is a very high risk that unaccompanied minors may become victims of crime who would like to use them for various purposes. For example, for trading. We have reports of criminals using orphans from orphanages in Ukraine, crossing the border pretending they are the child’s relatives, and then using him for trafficking,” Johannson said.
In this regard, she expressed her confidence that the EU has an obligation to protect these children. “We have to do much more than we have done so far. We must support children better than we have been able to do so far. They need our support. This (refugee flow) will not end soon. Putin wages his war without any restrictions or mercy. There will be more, the worst is yet to come. Many more millions will flee. And we should welcome them,” the European Commissioner said.
She also said that about two million refugees arrived in the EU in 12 days. “Just to compare, in 12 days we received two million refugees. This is the same amount as the EU received for the period 2015 and 2016 combined. More than one million in Poland, almost half a million in Romania, 170,000 in Hungary, 130 in Slovakia. Member States are doing an outstanding job,” Johannson said.
The European Commissioner also expressed confidence that “in addition to solidarity and unity, we need money not only for admission, but also to help with education, work, living, integration into our community.” “Today we proposed – and this is yet another unprecedented decision – to provide more flexibility to Member States to use our €420 million Home Affairs Fund and unspent funds from the previous macro-financial assistance package, to provide the flexibility to switch priorities so that States can provide more money to support those fleeing the war. We will also propose today to amend the rules for funding the Asylum and Migration Fund. I hope that this Parliament will approve these proposals without delay,” the European Commissioner said.
EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER, EVACUATING, MINORS, PROTECTION, VICTIMS TRAFFICKING
