Refugee children should be Europe’s big concern
It should make use of all its military, intelligence, political, and judicial might to look for the 10,000 missing children
Whenever a child goes missing, a huge frenzy starts. Thousands rush in and help search for the lost child. Although sometimes the search yields heart-breaking results, most of the time, the child is happily reunited with the family. This is what usually happens in most parts of the world, because no person with a good conscience would want any harm come to any child. They are innocent and should never have to face any negativity. However, they are equally vulnerable, and for that reason they deserve and need all the love and protection we can give them.
Yet, in Europe sometimes a child’s skin colour makes people determine if he should be treated like a child. We know this because when children from war-torn regions of the world fled to Europe in hopes of finding safety, they faced a different — and arguably worse — threat there, even though Europe was supposed to be a safe haven for all. Most of the time, they were turned down, sometimes detained, beaten up and more often than not, treated like criminals. Sometimes, they were forced to stay in refugee camps that had no proper security, decent food, water or blankets. They were often left exposed to abuse, rape and trafficking. The so-called Calais Jungle in France was a shameful example of how refugee children regularly experienced sexual exploitation, violence and coerced labour.
And now, these innocent children, who did nothing to deserve any ill-treatment, are being increasingly targeted by human traffickers in Europe. In 2015, some 10,000 migrant children went missing in the middle of Europe, many of them within hours after being registered. Being taken by human traffickers entails sexual abuse, exploitation, slavery, forced labour, and organ trafficking.
Normally this story would have caused a big uproar. After all, 10,000 children are missing and are possibly being held by traffickers who might be inflicting all sorts of unimaginable horrors on them. What makes this even worse is the fact that those children came to Europe because they were already running from danger. Did they vanish into thin air? Three years have passed and no one knows what happened to them. As a matter of fact, no one is even looking for them. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Europe has kept silent against human traffickers. There is no doubt that things would have been different had 10,000 European children gone missing.
It cannot be difficult for European law enforcement to locate 10,000 children. Without losing more time, Europe should make use of its military, intelligence, political and judicial clout to save these innocent children. Today’s children are the pillars of tomorrow’s society. However, due to this mad race in our education system and parents chasing their double income targets, youthfulness has wandered into obscurity. We need to answer as to what you will leave for our children.
What will they remember about us as parents? The expensive gift you gave to your child on his or her birthday? Or, when you submitted to his wish of owning his