clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Report: 63,000 unaccompanied minors came to Europe in 2016

May 22, 2017 at 2:10 pm

Image of migrants being rescued while crossing the Mediterranean sea on 7 May 2017 [Iker Pastor/Anadolu Agency]

The European Statistical Centre (Eurostat) announced that 63,000 unaccompanied minors entered the European Union in 2016, more than half of them came from Syria and Afghanistan.

#MigrantCrisis

The centre published its findings on unaccompanied minor migrants last week noting that 63,000 international protection applications filed by unaccompanied minors were sent to European Union member states last year; 65 per cent of the number which applied in 2015.

Some 96,500 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum in 2015, according to the centre’s statistics.

Read: Italy allowed hundreds of refugees to drown

About 89 per cent of unaccompanied asylum seekers were male aged between 16 and 17 years old.

Some 38 per cent were Afghans and 19 per cent were Syrians.