Every second a Ukrainian child becomes a refugee

Every second a child becomes a refugee due to the war in Ukraine, as confirmed by Unicef. The organization’s spokesman, James Elder, explained that of the three million refugees who have escaped the conflict caused by the Russian invasion, about 1.45 million are minorsmany of whom have left Ukraine without relatives.

Elder warned that It is feared that human trafficking criminal organizations Take advantage of this critical situation and the vulnerability of children, as has happened in other recent armed conflicts. Added to this risk is the fear that children will suffer violence or sexual exploitation, which is why there are volunteers who work 24 hours a day at refugee arrival points in neighboring countries. to detect suspicious situations.

According to estimates by the UN agency dedicated to the protection of children, every day more than 70,000 minors leave Ukraine to escape the war, which today is in its twentieth day. “The speed and scale of this refugee crisis is unparalleled since World War II,” continued the spokesman, who spent several days in western Ukraine as part of UNICEF operations in the country.

“In this war 50% of refugees are children who do not know where they are going, who are separated from their parents and see how their mothers do the impossible to survive in extreme conditions”, commented the director of Unicef.

During his mission in Ukraine, the spokesman witnessed the arrival in a single day at the Lviv pediatric hospital of up to 60 children injured in bombings in kyiv and those who were separated with colored labels that placed them according to their severity and based on which they were attended to sooner or later. “The green tag meant they could wait, the yellow one meant they needed attention now, and the red one meant their condition was critical,” he explained.